 |
| Taiwan Hai Lung class submarine (Wiki Info - Image: Wiki) |
ANCIENT MARINER: The president said he was doing his military service when a Taiwanese submarine that a US representative visited on Sunday was acquired.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday said that Taiwan badly needs a new generation of submarines to beef up its naval fleet.
“Our existing submarines are all very old and need renewal,” Ma said while meeting with a US congressional delegation headed by Representative Ed Royce, the Republican chairman of the US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Royce paid a visit to a naval base in Greater Kaohsiung on Sunday and boarded the Guppy-class submarine Sea Lion, Ma said.
“We acquired that warship more than 40 years ago,” he said. “I happened to be serving my mandatory military service in the navy at the time, so you can imagine how badly we need to renew our submarine fleet.”
The delegation visited the Tsoying naval base on Sunday for a briefing and boarded two mine hunters that the US delivered to Taiwan last year after refitting them.
Ministry of National Defense spokesman Major-General David Lo (羅紹和) said naval authorities took advantage of Royce’s visit to stress Taiwan’s desire to acquire new submarines to strengthen its maritime security.
In April 2001, then-US president George W. Bush announced the sale of eight conventional submarines as part of Washington’s most comprehensive arms package for Taiwan since 1992.
Since then, however, there has been little progress toward finalizing the deal.
Read the full story at Taipei Times