The White House announced a historic $345 million military aid package for Taiwan on Friday.amid the tension between the US and China.
The US government released a memorandum signed by President Joe Biden and addressed to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, authorizing the shipment to the island of military equipment from the Pentagon inventory.
The text does not specify the components that will make up this military assistance package, although a congressional employee familiar with the aid told The Hill media containing intelligence and surveillance capabilities, firearms, missiles, and man-portable air defense systemsknown as MANPADS.
According to US media, for the first time the US country will send aid of this type to Taiwan that comes from the Department of Defense inventory, instead of doing so through the US program of military sales abroad.
The mechanism used on this occasion is similar to that used by the US. to allocate security aid to Ukraine, which is proving fast and effective.
In its 2023 budget, the US Congress authorized the shipment of up to $1 billion worth of weapons to Taiwan through the procedure now being used.
Asked by journalists before the announcement of the package, one of the White House spokesmen, John Kirby, assured this Friday that The US takes its responsibilities towards Taiwan and the improvement of its “defense capabilities” “very, very seriously”.
“Nothing has changed about that and we will continue to look at ways to do it”he remarked.
Taiwan is one of the main sources of tension between the United States and China, since the North American country is Taipei’s main arms supplier, something that Beijing has repeatedly protested.
In mid-July, the island’s defense minister, Chiu Kuo-cheng, revealed that Taiwan is buying the NASAMS 2 anti-aircraft missile system from the US.
China claims sovereignty over Taiwan, a territory it considers a “rebel province” since Kuomintang nationalists withdrew there in 1949 after losing the war against the communist army.
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