 |
| Japanese Soryu class Submarine (File Photo) |
By Franz-Stefan Gady
The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee is visiting Taipei to discuss technical aid for domestic submarines.
Today, the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, Ed Royce, is beginning a three day visit to Taipei for talks over a wide range of issues, including future arms sales. According to the Taipei Times, arms talks are likely to concentrate on requested U.S. technical aid for domestic submarines.
“Royce is thought to favor helping with the submarines, but without support from U.S. President Barack Obama, the legislators have limited power in this area,” the newspaper notes. In 2001, the Bush administration agreed to help Taiwan acquire or produce eight diesel-electric submarines, yet so far the United States has proven reluctant to fulfill its pledge.
A January 2015 report by Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense (MND) notes that the United States continues to stall on the request for submarines by stating that it is “still under cross-agency review” by officials. This stalling tactic has been severely criticized by a few former U.S. officials, like Bob Dole, who emphasized that “Taiwan’s greatest need is new submarines.”
Read the full story at The Diplomat