Taiwan and US ‘seeking solutions’ to arms delays

Need to supply Ukraine has led to ‘problems’, Taipei says, after reports of big backlog

Taiwan will work closely with the United States to deal with any issues arising from reported delays in arms sales to the self-ruled island.

The island’s defence ministry acknowledged yesterday that the Russia-Ukraine war and the Covid-19 pandemic had had an impact on the progress of arms sales to Taiwan, but said it was working on the issue.

“Regarding the arms sales operation process, Taiwan and the US have an effective mechanism to deal with the delay in the sales and how it could be remedied,” ministry spokesman Sun Li-fang said at a news conference.

His remarks were made in response to reports that shipments of US weapons to Ukraine were worsening a US$19 billion backlog of arms bound for the island.

The backlog included outstanding orders from December 2015 for 208 Javelin anti-tank weapons and 215 surface-to-air Stinger missiles, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal on Monday.

Sun declined to comment on the progress of the delivery of Javelin and Stinger missiles, as “all ongoing cases involve confidentiality between the two sides.”

“But this will not affect our [operations] and the military will continue to work with the US to coordinate how the two sides can find solutions for the problems we face,” he said.

In Washington, the White House’s National Security Council spokesman, John Kirby, on Monday said the US was “constantly balancing” its own inventories, the inventories of its allies, and arms supplies for its partners, including Ukraine.

“It’s a balancing act … and we’re in constant touch with allies and partners about their readiness needs, because many of them are reliant on US systems. And of course, that includes Taiwan,” he said in a daily press briefing, in response to the reports.

“We take very seriously our responsibility to help provide Taiwan the self-defence capabilities that it needs,” Kirby said.

But Kirby declined to confirm if there was a backlog in arms shipments to Taiwan.

“I’m not going to get into it at a public podium, talking about inventory stocks of any system anywhere. That just is not a good idea for us to do,” he said.

“We make sure that our readiness can be preserved, as well as the readiness of our allies and partners.”