White House awaits nod from Congress on three arms sales deal with Taiwan

The development of selling advanced and sophisticated weapons to Taiwan, surfaced after senior US officials called upon Taipei’s leadership to spend more on its own defense and to carry out military reforms and make it clear to China the risks of attempts at invasion. The hardware beef-up comes at a time when Beijing has significantly increased its military activity in and around Taipei

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New Delhi:  Following close on the heels of Taiwanese National Day celebrations, the United States in bids to arm more teeth to Taipei is working to get Congressional approval on three arms deal. The White House is fast-tracking its move to conclude the sales of advanced weapons to Taiwan as it has despatched a notification of the deals to Congress for its permission.

The weapons deal between Washington and Taipei, ahead of the US Presidential elections, is set to infuriate Beijing, which lately has been aggressively voicing of the island nation to be a renegade province, vowing it to be united with the mainland.

As per reports, last week Washington moved the weapons deal papers to Congress. It was in September that the President Donald Trump-led administration had outlined that seven major weapons systems were making their way through the US export process as part of Washington’s tactics to corner China. In a statement to international media, the Chinese embassy urged Washington in an emailed statement to stop arms sales to and military ties with Taiwan, ‘lest it should gravely harm China-US relations and cross-Strait peace and stability.’ In the emailed statement, an embassy representative stated ‘China consistently and firmly opposes US arms sales to Taiwan and has firm resolve in upholding its sovereignty and security.’

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According to officials, leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations and House of Representatives Foreign Affairs committees were notified that three of the planned weapons sales had been approved by the US State Department which oversees Foreign Military Sales.

The informal notifications were for a truck-based rocket launcher made by Lockheed Martin Corp called a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), long-range air-to-ground missiles made by Boeing Co called SLAM-ER, and external sensor pods for F-16 jets that allow the real-time transmission of imagery and data from the aircraft back to ground stations. Notifications for the sale of other weapons systems, including large, sophisticated aerial drones, land-based Harpoon anti-ship missiles, and underwater mines, to deter amphibious landings, were yet to be delivered to the Congress.

The US Senate Foreign Relations and House of Representatives Foreign Affairs committees have the right to review, and block, weapons sales under an informal review process before the State Department sends its formal notification to the legislative branch. Capitol Hill representatives, who are generally wary of what they perceive as Chinese aggression and supportive of Taiwan, were not expected to object to the Taiwan sales.
Meanwhile, local media reported that Taiwan’s representative office in Washington denied commenting on the development.

The weapons deal development surfaced after senior US officials called upon Taipei’s leadership to spend more on its own defense and to carry out military reforms to make clear to China the risks of attempting to invade. The hardware beef-up comes at a time when China has significantly increased its military activity near Taiwan and the US-China relations have plunged to the lowest point in decades as the US election is around the corner.

Last week, US National Security Adviser (NSA) Robert O’Brien, issued a warning against any attempt to retake Taiwan by force, stating that amphibious landings were notoriously difficult and there was a lot of ambiguity about how Washington would respond. The United States is required by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, but it has not made clear whether it would intervene militarily in the event of a Chinese attack, something that would likely lead to a much broader conflict with Beijing.

According to the NSA, President Tsai Ing-wen-led administration must invest in procuring more coastal defense cruise missiles, naval mines, fast-attack craft, mobile artillery, and advanced surveillance assets.