Taiwan’s high-tech defense industry is to enhance collaboration with the US to produce weapons needed for self-defense, the Ministry of National Defense said in a report to the Legislative Yuan.
Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Yen-pu (徐衍璞) discussed building regional and global industry alliances with US partners at the US-Taiwan Defense Industry Conference in Philadelphia held from Sept. 22 to Tuesday last week, the ministry said in the declassified portion of the report.
The visit contributed to maintaining bilateral ties, facilitated Taiwan’s efforts to acquire weapons and equipment, and strengthened the resilience of the two nation’s defense industries, it said.
Photo: Reuters
Taiwan-US ties continue to grow steadily as Washington has repeatedly called its support for the nation “rock solid,” the ministry said.
The US Congress has passed bills supportive of Taiwan’s interests in the past few years, including assisting the nation in bolstering its self-defense capabilities against potential Chinese aggression as part of a global alliance of democracies, it said.
Citing the US’ Taiwan Enhanced Resilience Act, the report said that Washington is committed to utilizing foreign military financing and presidential drawdown authority for military assistance to accelerate the nation’s weapons acquisition.
Officials, industry leaders and academics who participated in last month’s conference agreed that the Taiwanese defense industry possesses the technology, workforce and manufacturing capabilities to become a US partner, it said.
The ministry’s research-and-development arm, the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology, and several private-sector manufacturers were cited at the conference as evidence of the nation’s technological prowess and production capacity, the report said.
Discussions with US industry leaders had been fruitful and they made progress toward upgrading the nation’s defense industry and implementing the government’s self-sufficient defense policy, it said.
The ministry communicated the objectives of the policy and its willingness to work with US partners, while US officials reiterated Washington’s commitment to help Taiwan obtain defensive weapons, it said.
The ministry sent the report to lawmakers ahead of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo’s (顧立雄) question-and-answer session at the Legislative Yuan tomorrow on the recently concluded conference and price-gouging scandal involving the US defense conglomerate RTX Corp.
Bloomberg in July reported that the US Department of Justice had opened an investigation into RTX — formerly known as Raytheon Technologies Corp — in October 2020 on pricing issues with Raytheon contracts entered into between 2011 and 2013 and in 2017.
Chinese-language news site Yi Media on Tuesday reported that RTX raised its prices for weapons and equipment such as missiles and radar systems, while it “kept Taiwan in the dark” about it.
Speaking on the sidelines of a legislative meeting on Friday, Koo said that RTX would fully compensate Taiwan for the amount it overcharged the nation.
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