The Ministry of National Defense (MND) is to raise its budget for military interactions linked to the US to NT$154 million (US$4.83 million) for fiscal 2024, up 28.7 percent from NT$120 billion a year earlier and a sign of deepening exchanges between the two nations’ armed forces.
The ministry’s proposed general budget, which was presented to the Legislative Yuan on Thursday includes housing technical staff, and said that while some of the activities would involve joint events, all of them would be conducted with the US.
The budget report said the ministry’s interactions with the US would include visits by personnel and military studies as part of regular exchanges, but also activities linked to new endeavors.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
Taiwanese defense personnel are expected to attend conferences connected to the procurement of US arms and host US technical support personnel for the M1A2T Abrahams, High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems and other weapons systems, the budget report said.
The new endeavors would include a deal to buy engines for the army’s M60A3 tanks and conferences about the TOW anti-tank guided missile, third-generation army command and control systems and Joint Direct Attack Munitions, it said.
A meeting between senior non-commissioned officers in the armed forces and the US Indo-Pacific Command is also in the works, the budget said.
Taiwan would be required to send personnel to US arms manufacturers for technical reasons, which contributed to the rise in costs, it said.
In related developments, National Defense University is to boost its scholarship program for students serving in foreign militaries, and the university’s president is to lead delegations on visits to the militaries of the nation’s diplomatic allies.
The president of the university is in the coming years expected to visit the war colleges and defense establishments of diplomatic allies in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa, a defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Taiwan’s diplomatic allies in the Americas would be the first on the list, with visits being planned for November next year, they said.
Previously, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has said during a meeting with Latin American military officers attending the defense university that the government is interested in deepening its partnerships with Belize, Guatemala, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile and Peru.
The ministry has increasingly become bolder in conducting exchanges with friendly states in high-profile and semi-official settings due to international shifts that have allayed the government’s concerns about a backlash from Beijing, the official said.
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