According to the White House, President Joe Biden has approved sending Taiwan with a $345 million military aid package that includes weaponry sourced directly from US stocks to help Taiwan confront China's threats.
In a memorandum dated July 28, Mr. Biden instructed the withdrawal of "$345 million in defense articles and services of the Department of Defense, as well as military education and training, to provide assistance to Taiwan."
The memorandum did not go into detail on the military assistance. Given the "tacit agreement" between the two countries, Taiwan's Defense Ministry refrained to comment on the package's contents.
The self-governing island hailed the US for the military assistance, saying that Washington's decision to pull weapons from its own stockpiles offered "an important tool to support Taiwan's self-defense."
"Taiwan and the United States will continue to cooperate closely on security issues to maintain peace, stability, and the status quo across the Taiwan Strait," the ministry said in a statement, without going into further detail.
Lt. Col. Martin Meiners, a Defense Department spokesman, told reporters that the aid package will target Taiwan's "critical defensive stockpiles, multi-domain awareness, anti-armor, and air defense capabilities."
The deal is in addition to the almost $19 billion in arms sales approved by the US for Taiwan. The delivery of those weapons has been hindered by supply chain challenges that began during the epidemic and have been compounded by global military industrial base pressures brought on by the Russia-Ukraine war.
This assistance is part of a presidential power granted by Congress last year to pull weapons from the United States' stockpiles. It speeds up weapon delivery and allows Taiwan to get military aid without having to wait for military manufacturing and sales.
On June 29, the United States. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) authorized two prospective arms sales to Taiwan worth up to $440 million, the tenth agreement approved by the Biden administration.
The first transaction, at an estimated $332.2 million, contains 30 mm high explosive incendiary-tracer rounds, 30 mm multi-purpose rounds, 30 mm training rounds, and other related equipment.
The second agreement, worth $108 million, is a blanket order cooperative logistics supply assistance agreement that would help Taiwan obtain spare and repair parts for wheeled vehicles, weapons, and other relevant elements.
China has severely criticized the US action and asked the US to cease providing armaments to Taiwan. China sent 24 airplanes and five ships near Taiwan the day after Washington approved the military trade. Eleven warplanes were sighted breaching the Taiwan Strait middle line, according to Taiwan's military.
Even though Taiwan has never been administered by the CCP and has its own democratic government, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sees it as a renegade province that must be united with the mainland by whatever means necessary.
The United States nominally acknowledges, but does not support, the CCP's position. The nation maintains legal connections with Taiwan, ensuring that the island has the weapons it requires for self-defense.
