Taiwan’s defence ministry says the F-16 spare parts purchase will boost the combat and defence needs of its air force in the fight against China, and that the sale will be completed next month, in July, Reuters reports.
The US State Department has approved the sale of about $80 million worth of spare and repair parts for F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan, the Pentagon’s Defence Security Co-operation Agency said.
The sale will help “enhance recipient security and assist in maintaining political stability, military balance and economic progress in the region,” the agency also added in a statement.
Taiwan’s defence ministry thanked the US and stressed that the sale would enhance the combat and defence needs of its air force. The ministry said the deal would be finalised in July. It said in a statement:
“With normalised gray-zone harassments, the Chinese Communist Party attempted to squeeze our naval and air training space and response time, as well as limiting our rights of self-defence.”
Earlier, China repeatedly demanded that the US, Taiwan’s biggest arms supplier, stop selling weapons to the island.
Speaking to reporters in parliament on Thursday, Taiwan’s Defence Minister Wellington Koo said Taiwan must improve its self-defence capabilities to be part of an “effective deterrent” as part of the US Indo-Pacific strategy. He also said:
“But for Taiwan-US military co-operation, there are many things we can only do, not tell.”
