Government of Taiwan, The US government has asked Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense (MND) to make a final decision before the end of May on its plan to procure 12 P-3C Orion anti-submarine aircraft from the United States, MND spokesman Liu Chih-chien said Tuesday.
Speaking at a weekly news conference, Liu said that the United States has notified the MND of the matter through official channels. If Taiwan fails to reply by the end of this month, the 12 airplanes selected by Taiwan might be sold to other countries, he said, adding that “many uncertainties remain on the way.”
Liu claimed that the 12 aircraft are the best of their kind in terms of quality and flight safety that the United States has been keeping and added that Taiwan will have to select from other airplanes in the future should it miss the present opportunity. He reiterated the MND's call for legislative support of its major military procurement plan and expressed the hope that the budget bill can clear the legislative procedural committee in the afternoon.
The MND has put forward a major arms procurement budget bill worth about NT$480 billion (US$15.19 billion) for legislative approval to buy eight diesel-fueled submarines and six PAC III Patriot anti-missile batteries, in addition to the 12 anti-submarine aircraft, from the United States over a 15-year period.
However, the bill has been stalled in the Legislative Yuan since late last year due to sharp differences between the “pan green camp” and the opposition “pan blue alliance,” which controls more than half of the seats in the 225-member legislature.
The “pan green alliance” is made up of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party and the Taiwan Solidarity Union, while the “pan blue alliance” is made up of the main opposition Kuomintang, the People First Party and the New Party.
