Taiwan needs to restock air-defense missiles and ships systems and should move ahead with a multibillion-dollar arms package offered by the United States to strengthen its defences, the Pentagon's top arms dealer said on Wednesday.
"We very much want to see them concentrate on their defense," Air Force Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kohler told the Reuters Aerospace and Defense Summit here. Kohler heads the Defense Security and Co-operation Agency, which handles government-to-government arms sales. China regards Taiwan as a rogue province and has threatened to attack if it declares formal statehood.
Opposition parties have blocked Taiwan's legislature 31 times from considering an $11 billion US arms package, scaled back from $18 billion. The money would be used for eight diesel-electric submarines and 12 P-3C Orion anti-submarine aircraft built by Lockheed Martin Corp.
President Chen Shui-Bin wants the US weapons to balance military might with China, which the Pentagon says has up to 730 missiles pointed at the self-governing island from across the Taiwan Strait.
Kohler said the country should get on with the special budget issue. "It's been very frustrating," he said. "I think they've turned some of their defense issues into a political football."
"Our position is until we see movement on the special budget it's premature for us to go out and start talking to people in detail on what might actually be contracted," Kohler said. "We're waiting for the Taiwanese."
Chen's government also plans to buy six anti-missile Patriot PAC-3 batteries built by Raytheon Co but has dropped them from the special budget and said it will buy them under its normal defense budget.
The United States first offered the deal in 2001 but Taiwan's main opposition party, which favours closer ties with China, says it is over-priced, provocative and unnecessary. Opposition parties in Taiwan hold a slim parliamentary majority.
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