Top Stories

U.S. approves license for Taiwan submarine plan

Agence France-Presse

Washington has agreed to allow U.S. defense contractors to help Taiwan build its own submarines, Taipei said, welcoming the breakthrough in long-standing ambitions to build up its fleet to counter the threat from China.

In 2016, Taiwan launched a plan to manufacture its own submarines amid deteriorating relations with China after its hopes of buying them from the U.S. came to nothing.

The U.S. State Department has approved granting the license necessary to sell Taiwan the technology needed for its submarine project.

The approval was a “breakthrough,” Taiwan Defense Ministry spokesman Chen Chung-chi said in early April 2018.

“It is part of a process. We’ll take it step by step,” he said, declining to provide further details.

The agreement is likely to anger Beijing, which regards the island as part of its territory even though the two sides have been ruled separately since the end of a civil war in 1949.

Washington’s approval comes after U.S. President Donald Trump signed new rules in March 2018 allowing top-level U.S. officials to travel to Taiwan.

China has protested the move, saying the U.S. should stop official exchanges with Taiwan to avoid “damaging Sino-U.S. relations.”

Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 1979 but maintains trade relations with the island and is its main arms supplier.

Since coming to power in May 2016, President Tsai Ing-wen has pushed for Taiwan to develop and build more of its weapons domestically.

Her office expressed thanks to Washington for the license approval.

“The U.S. government’s decision will not only help Taiwan in raising its defense capabilities, it will also greatly benefit security and stability in the region,” it said in an early April 2018 statement.

Taipei has long struggled to procure submarines from the U.S.

In April 2001, then-U.S. President George W. Bush approved the sale of eight conventional submarines, but there had been no progress on the deal, prompting Taipei’s decision to build its own.

The United States has not built conventional submarines for more than 40 years, and Germany and Spain reportedly declined to offer their designs for fear of offending China.

Taiwan’s Navy operates a fleet of four submarines, bought from abroad, but only two of them can be deployed in the event of war. (Pictured: Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen waves from a Dutch-made Sea Tiger submarine at the Tsoying Navy base in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan in March 2017.)

The other two were built by the United States in the 1940s and are only used in training because they are too old for combat.

The first domestically built submarine is expected to be deployed within 10 years.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button