US to give Taiwan F-16 fighter jet parts
Last Updated on June 7, 2024 10:15 am
The US has approved the sale of $80 million worth of F-16 fighter jet parts to Taiwan. The sale will help improve Taiwan’s security and maintain political stability, military balance and economic progress in the region.
The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said this in a statement on Wednesday. British news agency Reuters reported this news.
Thanking the United States for approving the sale of weapons parts to Taiwan, the country’s defense ministry said the decision would further boost the country’s air force’s combat and defense needs. It will be finalized in July, said the ministry.
In a statement, the ministry said, “As a harassment tactic between peace and open war, the Chinese Communist Party has been regularly and consistently restricting our right to self-defense, as well as trying to suppress naval and air training sites and time for countermeasures.”
The United States is Taiwan’s most important arms supplier. Beijing has repeatedly called on the country to end arms sales to the island. China considers the island nation as part of its territory. However, Taiwan strongly opposes such a claim of the country.
Reuters did not immediately receive a response to a request for comment from China’s Ministry of Defense.
Speaking to reporters in parliament on Thursday, Taiwan’s Defense Minister Wellington Koo said Taiwan must increase its self-defense capabilities to be part of an “effective deterrent” to the US’s Indo-Pacific strategy. But there is much more to Taiwan-US military cooperation that we can only show, not tell.