US efforts to support Ukraine with military equipment are “in no way” obstructing its plans to provide arms for Taiwan, US Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks said on Thursday at a security forum.
“The US supporting Ukraine is in no way negatively affecting our ability to provide [or] fulfill foreign military sales cases, or otherwise support Taiwan,” Hicks said during a talk at the Aspen Security Forum in Washington.
Since late February, when Russia invaded Ukraine, Washington has provided Kyiv with FGM-148 Javelin portable anti-tank missiles and FIM-92 Stinger portable surface-to-air missiles, items that the US has also sold to Taiwan, but has reportedly delayed shipping.
Photo: AFP
The delivery of those items to Taiwan was “totally unrelated” to US provisions to Ukraine, which are drawn from US stockpiles, Hicks said.
By analogy, Hicks said the US had sent “used cars” to Ukraine, but Taiwan would receive “a brand new car.”
Asked whether it would be possible for Taiwanese troops to receive US military training at home, as was done in Ukraine in 2016 after the Russian annexation of Crimea, Hicks did not provide a direct answer.
“I think there’s a lot [Taiwan’s military] can do themselves and a lot of partnerships that they have available to them,” Hicks said. “You don’t have to be in [the] country to do a lot of that kind of training.”
“Taiwan needs to put its self-defense front and center,” Hicks said, adding that the best way to deter China from military aggression against Taiwan relies on the will of the people in Taiwan to defend the nation.
Ukraine’s response to Russia’s invasion has demonstrated “the will of a people combined with [the] capability to stall or even stop a campaign of oppression,” she said.
Hicks spoke of what Taiwan should do to strengthen its self-defense capabilities, including improving its noncommissioned officer corps, imposing longer compulsory military service and focusing on asymmetric systems.
US National Security Council Indo-Pacific Coordinator Kurt Campbell at a separate talk said that Washington and its partners in the Indo-Pacific region have a “strong, overriding interest in the maintenance of peace and stability” in the Taiwan Strait.
Regarding US-China relations, Campbell said that people would see a resumption of more practical and predictable “great power diplomacy” between the two countries in the next few months, a development he said would be “reassuring” to the region.
Campbell said his assessment considered that China is facing challenges at home and abroad.
China’s ambitious engagements with other countries in the region have “backfired,” he said, citing its disputes with Japan over the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) — called the Senkaku Islands by Japan — and its border conflict with India.
Beijing’s “zero COVID” policy had slowed the country’s economy and caused public anger, contributing to its domestic problems, he added.
“All of that suggests to me that the last thing that the Chinese need right now is an openly hostile relationship with the United States,” Campbell said. “They want a degree of predictability and stability, and we seek that as well.”
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS