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September 30, 2024 – 07:51
Washington/Taipei, Sep 30 (EFE).- The president of the United States, Joe Biden, approved aid of $567 million to improve Taiwan’s defensive capabilities, amid the escalation of tensions between Taipei and Beijing, sources reported. officers.
According to a statement from the White House, Biden delegated to Secretary of State Antony Blinken the authority to transfer “up to $567 million in defense items and services from the Department of Defense, as well as military education and training, to provide assistance to Taiwan.”
The statement, published this Sunday, does not offer more details about the type of articles or services contemplated in this aid.
Last April, the US president enacted a law that increased foreign aid to Taiwan and other Pacific allies, which included $2 billion in foreign military financing and $1.9 billion in PDA (‘presidential drawdown authority’). , a measure with which Washington can remove material from its own arsenals to transfer it directly to the island.
The Taiwanese government, currently led by sovereigntist William Lai, has on several occasions expressed its displeasure over the delays in the delivery of American weapons.
According to estimates by the Cato Institute, a think tank based in Washington, the value of the weapons that have not yet arrived in Taiwan amounts to 20.53 billion US dollars, an amount that includes 66 F-16 fighters, 108 Abrams tanks and 100 systems of Harpoon missiles acquired during the Administration of former President Donald Trump (2017-2021).
Taiwan – where the Chinese nationalist army withdrew after defeat at the hands of communist troops in the civil war (1927-1949) – has been governed autonomously since the end of the war, although China claims sovereignty over the island, which he considers a rebellious province for whose “reunification” he has not ruled out the use of force.
The Taiwanese issue is one of the main points of friction between Beijing and Washington, since the US is Taipei’s main arms supplier and could defend the island in the event of a conflict.
Since Lai came to power last May, China has intensified its military pressure on Taiwan, whose government has proposed increasing the defense budget to a “historic high” of 647 billion Taiwan dollars (about $20.478 billion) by 2025. .
ws-jacb/aa/ig
