Taipei - Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou on Monday urged the
United States to speed up arms sales to Taiwan despite improved
Taipei-Beijing ties.
'Taiwan and China's improving ties do not affect Taiwan's arms
purchase from the US. Taiwan made the request last year, and hopes
the US can proceed according to legislative procedure,' he said while
receiving a US Congress delegation.
Ma said Taiwan needs to show its determination to defend itself.
Therefore, Taiwan will keep its defence budget no lower than 3 per
cent of its gross domestic product (GDP).
Taiwan's current defence budget is about 2.8 per cent of its GDP.
President George W Bush in 2004 approved an arms sales package to
Taiwan which includes 12 P-3C Orion maritime patrol and
anti-submarine aircraft, six batteries of PAT-3 anti-missile systems
and eight diesel-electric submarines.
Taiwan passed the budget for most of the purchase in late 2007,
but the US has been delaying the arms sale, reportedly due to
improved Taipei-Beijing ties since Ma took office on May 20.
But after parliament speaker Wang Jin-pying visited the US
recently to push the arms sale, Bush is expected to approve the deal
after the Beijing Olympics, Taiwan press reports said.
During his meeting with the US Congress delegation, Ma also
expressed the hope that Taiwan and the US should sign a free trade
agreement (FTA).
'Like two normal nations, our two sides are actively seeking
solutions for issues of mutual interest,' he noted, in an apparent
reference to the unofficial ties between Taiwan and the US.
Taiwan has been seeking to sign FTAs with the US, Japan, Singapore
and South Korea for several years, but these countries have refused,
for fear of hurting their diplomatic ties with China.
China sees Taiwan as its breakaway province and bars its
diplomatic allies from forming official ties with Taiwan, like
signing official documents with Taiwan or receiving Taiwan leaders.
USA
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