France said it would close a low-key military liaison office in Taiwan in retaliation over a ruling in a controversial arms deal, local media said yesterday.
The Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) reported that the office, which arranges visits by military personnel and facilitates Taiwan’s acquisition of French-made weaponry, would be shut down next month.
The office is part of the French Institute in Taiwan, the de facto embassy of France in the absence of formal diplomatic ties.
PHOTO: FANG PIN-CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
The report came after a decision by an international court last month ordering French group Thales to pay back a large sum that it overcharged Taiwan in a 1991 frigate sale.
A Paris-based court of arbitration said the money was to make up for unauthorized commissions paid to help Thomson-CSF, which later became Thales, win a deal to sell six Lafayette frigates to Taiwan.
Lawyers at the Ministry of National Defense said Thales would pay an estimated US$861 million to Taiwan, including US$591 million in damages and US$270 million in interest and legal expenses.
The arbitration results also led France to scrap its plan of arming the six Lafayette frigates with the French-made Aster air defense system, the Liberty Times said.
Thales spearheaded the sale, but the main stake in the contract was held by French state-owned shipbuilder DCN. Several sources said the French state would have to pay 70 percent of the penalty.
In 2001, Taiwan’s highest anti-graft body concluded that as much as US$400 million in kickbacks may have been paid throughout the course of the deal.
In 2008, a French judge ordered the dismissal without trial of one of France’s biggest graft cases involving massive kickbacks in the frigate sale to Taiwan, citing a lack of evidence.
The Liberty Times reported that Taipei and Paris reached a consensus in April to settle the matter out of court, with France providing Taiwan with military equipment, upgraded functions and technological services.
The two sides had decided to go ahead with the new cooperation plan after the international court delivered the ruling, but the plan fell flat following the surprising ruling last month, the report said.
National Security Council Adviser Ke Kuang-yeh (葛光越) indirectly confirmed that the French Institute in Taiwan had decided to close its technical team, saying “a replacement was being worked on.”
The withdrawal of the technical team would not influence future technical and military ties, Ke told Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chang Hsien-yao (張顯耀) at a question-and-answer session at the legislature.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Yang (楊進添) told the legislature’s Judicial and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee yesterday he was unaware of the matter.
Yang said the ruling would not affect relations between Taiwan and France.
Last night, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the French government had plans to pull out the technical team as part of efforts to streamline its overseas personnel and cut government costs.
The French government has been deliberating the matter for years and it has kept the Taiwanese government informed, it said.
Since the matter was an internal affair of the French government that has yet to be finalized, the ministry said it was in no position to further comment.
Approached by the Taipei Times, the French Institute in Taiwan refused to comment.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) said she was concerned that any falling outs in military ties with France would undermine the military’s ability to counter a growing Chinese threat.
“If there is a lapse in US military sales and then France also stops its sales, the Taiwanese military will be in a serious crisis,” Chen said.
“President [Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九)] must fight harder to prevent this from happening,” she said.
DEATH THREAT: A MAC official said that it has urged Beijing to avoid creating barriers that would impede exchanges across the Strait, but it continues to do so People should avoid unnecessary travel to China after Beijing issued 22 guidelines allowing its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death “Taiwan independence separatists,” the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday as it raised its travel alert for China, including Hong Kong and Macau, to “orange.” The guidelines published last week “severely threaten the personal safety of Taiwanese traveling to China, Hong Kong and Macau,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a news conference in Taipei. “Following a comprehensive assessment, the government considers it necessary to elevate the travel alert to orange from yellow,” Liang said. Beijing has
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday said that the Chinese Communist Party was planning and implementing “major” reforms, ahead of a political conclave that is expected to put economic recovery high on the agenda. Chinese policymakers have struggled to reignite growth since late 2022, when restrictions put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic were lifted. The world’s second-largest economy is beset by a debt crisis in the property sector, persistently low consumption and high unemployment among young people. Policymakers “are planning and implementing major measures to further deepen reform in a comprehensive manner,” Xi said in a speech at the Great Hall
CIVIL DEFENSE: More reservists in alternative service would help establish a sound civil defense system for use in wartime and during natural disasters, Kuma Academy’s CEO said While a total of 120,000 reservists are expected to be called up for alternative reserve drills this year, compared with the 6,505 drilled last year, the number has been revised to 58,000 due to a postponed training date, Deputy Minster of the Interior Ma Shih-yuan (馬士元) said. In principle, the ministry still aims to call up 120,000 reservists for alternative reserve drills next year, he said, but the actual number would not be decided later until after this year’s evaluation. The increase follows a Legislative Yuan request that the Ministry of the Interior address low recruitment rates, which it made while reviewing
DETERRENCE: Along with US$500 million in military aid and up to US$2 billion in loans and loan guarantees, the bill would allocate US$400 million to countering PRC influence The US House of Representatives on Friday approved an appropriations bill for fiscal year 2025 that includes US$500 million in military aid for Taiwan. The legislation, which authorizes funding for the US Department of State, US foreign operations and related programs for next year, passed 212-200 in the Republican-led House. The bill stipulates that the US would provide no less than US$500 million in foreign military financing for Taiwan to enhance deterrence across the Taiwan Strait, and offer Taipei up to US$2 billion in loans and loan guarantees for the same purpose. The funding would be made available under the US’ Foreign Military