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Taiwan
ChinaDiplomacy

Taiwan prepares a weapons shopping list to hand US at defence conference

  • Cooperation on island’s defence and security needs are central topics of the 2020 US-Taiwan Defence Industry Conference
  • Kuomintang chairman Johnny Chiang will address delegates, indicating the party’s support for a closer US-Taiwan relationship

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The 2020 US-Taiwan Defence Industry Conference is being held on Monday and Tuesday. US President Trump’s administration has approved seven major arms deals to Taiwan worth some US$13.2 billion in total. Photo: Military News Agency via AP
Lawrence Chung
Officials and military experts from Taiwan and the United States will meet via video conference to discuss which weapons would be best for the island’s self-defence as tensions escalate between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.

During the 2020 US-Taiwan Defence Industry Conference, which is expected to begin on Monday US time, Taiwan’s deputy defence minister Chang Guan-chung is expected to brief the US side on the weaponry most needed and urgently sought by the island after seeing growing military intimidation from Beijing.

Tensions in the Taiwan Strait have risen in the past two months since the United States sent two high-ranking cabinet officials – Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and undersecretary of state Keith Krach – to Taiwan on August 9 and September 17 respectively, moves seen as highly provocative to Beijing.
Beijing has sent dozens of warplanes for deliberate incursions into Taiwan’s air-defence identification zone, with at least 37 crossing a median line in the narrow strait between Taiwan and the mainland. The incursions were meant as a sign of Beijing’s displeasure over the visits, which were aimed at consolidating US-Taiwan substantive ties in the absence of formal relations.
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The US-Taiwan Business Council has hosted the event annually in the US since 2002. This year, in place of the face-to-face event, the business council will hold a smaller two-day conference online, with the sessions and keynotes scheduled for Monday and Tuesday.

Topics to be discussed behind closed doors include “US defence cooperation with Taiwan, the defence procurement process and Taiwan’s defence and national security needs”, the council said, adding it also hoped to “provide opportunities to connect with others working on Taiwan defence and national security issues”.

The defence industry conference is a semi-official military exchange event traditionally considered very important to Taiwan. Taipei formerly used the occasion to pass its weapons wish list to the US, seeking items to aid its defence against military attack by Beijing.

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