Taiwan negotiates $40 billion worth of arms purchases with US
Taiwan's Defence Minister Wellington Koo announced that Taipei has already coordinated in advance with the United States on what weapons it would like to buy under the planned $40 billion additional defence budget by 2033. This is in response to increasing military and political pressure from China, which considers Taiwan to be its territory.
Koo said Taiwan has already received specific items, prices and a timeframe for deliveries from the U.S. Department of Defense, which he said demonstrates U.S. willingness to provide the weapons, but he will not disclose details until after a formal announcement to Congress.
The new budget has yet to be approved by parliament, where the opposition Kuomintang party has a majority. The latter is particularly critical of the scale of the debt and the fact that President Lai Ching-te first presented the plan in an op-ed for the Washington Post.
Prime Minister Cho Yong-tae urged lawmakers to consider the growing threat from mainland China when voting, adding, "If you don't have a country, how can you have a home?" According to the defense minister, the program would create 90-thousand jobs.