It is up to the US to decide what to do with Taiwan’s decommissioned Hawk anti-aircraft missiles, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said yesterday, when asked if they would be transferred to Ukraine.
The US and its allies have provided billions of dollars of arms to Ukraine since Russia attacked the country more than two years ago in what Moscow calls a “special military operation.”
That has included weapons being phased out by some Western nations, such as F-16 jets from the Netherlands.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Speaking to reporters at the Legislative Yuan and responding to a question on whether Taiwan’s decades-old Hawk missiles could go to Ukraine, Koo said the nation no longer needed the weapons and their decommissioning was being handled in accordance with regulations.
DONATION CLAIM
Photo: Reuters
Forbes magazine, citing former Pentagon official Tony Hu (胡振東), on Tuesday reported that Taiwan has donated its surplus Hawk surface-to-air missile batteries to the Ukrainian Air Force.
“If the US side requests that we transfer them back, we will do so in accordance with the regulations and return them, and then the US would decide what to do with them,” Koo said, without elaborating.
Taiwan has offered strong moral support to Ukraine since the beginning of the invasion, seeing parallels with the threat Taipei says it faces from China.
Taiwan has not made any public announcements about directly sending weapons to Ukraine.
The defense ministry told the Central News Agency that Koo was referring to specific regulations on the management of military items and equipment, and obsolete military equipment.
Taiwan is in the process of upgrading its own missile defenses, including inking a US$2 billion deal with the US for National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS) medium-range air defense solutions that includes the Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles Extended Range surface-to-air missiles.
WEAPON PURCHASE
The NASAMS has been battle tested in Ukraine and represents a significant increase in air defense capabilities. The US is exporting it to Taiwan as demand for the system surges.
Koo was also asked about a recent Financial Times report saying that Taiwan might be considering a large-scale weapons purchase, including Aegis destroyers, E-2D Advanced Hawkeyes, Patriot missiles and F-35 jets, to “show that they are serious” about defending the nation to US president-elect Donald Trump.
Taipei is open to all available options to meet its defensive needs, Koo said.
However, he did not identify any specific weapons systems.
When asked by a lawmaker to comment on Trump’s pick of Fox News host and US Army veteran Pete Hegseth as US secretary of defense, Koo said that Hegseth is relatively young and a strong supporter of “America first.”
The US and Taiwan have a common fundamental interest, he said, adding that with the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas wars going on, conflict in the Taiwan Strait would be unacceptable.
The continuity of the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait is in both countries’ interest, and Taipei and Washington have common ground in their discussions, Koo said.
Asked by a reporter to comment on Trump having picked Republican Representative Mike Waltz as national security adviser, Koo said he respects the personnel changes in democratic politics.
However, he also wants to express gratitude to Waltz for having led the Foreign Military Sales Technical, Industrial and Governmental Engagement for Readiness (TIGER) Task Force in the House of Representatives last year, which helped accelerate the delivery of weapons purchases to Taiwan, he said.
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