The United States has approved the sale of $330 million (€284 million) worth of parts and components, in its first military deal with Taiwan since U.S. president Donald Trump’s return to office.
After the U.S. State Department approved the package, Taiwan’s foreign ministry announced that
This marks the first time the new Trump administration has announced an arms sale to Taiwan.
China’s foreign ministry said it “firmly opposed” Washington’s approval of the sale, which comes about two weeks after Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea.
Beijing claims Taiwan is part of its territory and has threatened to use force to bring it under its control. China deploys military aircraft and warships around Taiwan on a near-daily basis, which analysts describe as “grey-zone” operations—coercive tactics that fall short of an act of war.
Taiwan has its own defence industry, but the island’s military would be massively outgunned in a conflict with China and remains heavily reliant on U.S. weapons for self-defence. According to the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency, the democratic island requested
non-standard components, spare and repair parts, consumables and accessories, and repair and return support for F-16, C-130, and Indigenous Defense Fighter (IDF) aircraft.
Washington is Taipei’s biggest arms supplier and a key deterrent to a potential Chinese attack, but Trump’s past remarks on Taiwan have raised doubts about his willingness to defend the democratic island.
While the United States is legally bound to provide arms to Taiwan, Washington has long maintained “strategic ambiguity” when it comes to whether it would deploy its military to defend the island from a Chinese attack.
