TAIPEI — Taiwan has always enjoyed cross-party U.S. support and Congress will continue to help in strengthening Taipei's defence capabilities, Defence Minister Wellington Koo said on Thursday when asked about arms sales following the U.S. midterm elections.
The United States is Chinese-claimed Taiwan's most important international backer and weapons supplier, despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties. While President Donald Trump last December approved $11 billion in arms for Taiwan, the largest sale ever, a second package worth some $14 billion has stalled.
Following a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in May, Trump called the package a good "bargaining chip" that he was holding in "abeyance". Asked by reporters at parliament in Taipei whether there would be any changes to the $14 billion package after the Democrats won both houses in the midterms, Koo pointed to strong support from both U.S. parties.
"I think the U.S. Congress has always been non-partisan and will support Taiwan in strengthening its defence capabilities," he said. "We will also continue to communicate with members of Congress, and of course we will maintain close contact with the U.S. Department of War to ensure that these related arms sales proceed on schedule." The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside office hours in Washington.
In September, four of Trump's fellow Republicans called on his administration to release more than $15 billion in stalled national security assistance for Taiwan, including the $14 billion package, ahead of Xi visiting the U.S. capital.
Trump is expected to meet Xi at least twice more before the end of the year — at the APEC summit in China this month and at the G20 in Florida in December — and officials in Taipei have said it was possible the new package might be pushed into 2027. Ronan Fu, assistant research fellow at the government's top think-tank Academia Sinica, said when arms sales did resume, maybe next year, they could be split into separate blocks.
