Arms Sales To Taiwan In 2015 To Include Patriot Missiles

Arms Sales To Taiwan In 2015 To Include Patriot Missiles

The Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missile system will reportedly be part of the arms sales to Taiwan by the United States in 2015, according to Senator James Inhofe in a recent visit to the Taiwan.

Inhofe also indicated that additional arms sales to Taiwan for this year will include thirty Apache attack choppers while sixty Black Hawk transport choppers will be sold in 2014. The Senate Taiwan Caucus co-chairman met with President Ma Ying-jeou recently at the Presidential Office.

The arms sales are part of the promise of Washington to Taiwan along with the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979. However, he indicated that there is still some room for improvement in the implementation of the act.

Ma recalled the approval of arms sales to Taiwan by former US President George W. Bush prior to his first term of office. President Barack Obama also maintained the decision for additional arms sales to Taiwan. In the first three years of the term of Ma, arms sales to Taiwan reached $18 billion, which was the biggest arms sale since 1979. It also proved that the US will honor its pledge to help Taiwan in protecting itself.

Ma also said that the concern of its friends at the US Congress were evident in the last two years where over forty-seven senators and one hundred eighty-one representatives urged Obama to sell fighter jets to Taiwan.

Ma also repeated the proposal of his country for a joint exploration of the Diaoyutai Islands with Japan and put aside the dispute.

Inhofe was the head of a congressional delegation that arrived in Taiwan for a two-day visit. Taiwanese legislator Lin Yu-fang reportedly quoted Inhofe giving Wang assurances that he will persuade most of the US senators to support the request of Taiwan for additional arms sales including the F-16 C and D fighter jets.

Posted by James Fried on Wednesday January 09 2013, 8:40 AM EST. Ref: Focus Taiwan. Link. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0