Taiwan Seals USD6.6B US Weapons Procurement Agreements
The package is headlined by two major acquisitions: High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), drawing $3.9 billion, and M109A7 self-propelled howitzers, allocated $2.3 billion, with an additional $168 million earmarked for missile stockpile replenishment. The remaining agreements encompass Navy anti-armor missiles, a joint Taiwan-US large-caliber ammunition production initiative, and consulting services for an integrated air defense system.
The deals were clinched after Washington agreed to permit deferred payments covering 82 HIMARS units and 60 M109A7 systems — a concession driven by legislative delays in Taipei. Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party had proposed a special defense budget to finance the purchases, but the measure stalled in the island's legislature, creating a financing bottleneck that necessitated the payment deferral arrangement.
Washington remains Taipei's foremost arms supplier. The Trump administration approved a record $11 billion in arms sales to Taiwan last year — a move that drew fierce protests from Beijing, which retaliated by sanctioning multiple US defense firms and their personnel.
In a separate but symbolically significant development Thursday, Taiwan's Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling traveled to Taiping Island — also known as Itu Aba — to observe a maritime rescue exercise, marking the first such ministerial visit in seven years. Taiping is the largest naturally occurring island in the contested Spratly Islands of the South China Sea and remains under Taiwanese control.
The drill incorporated two scenarios: a Coast Guard interception of a suspicious cargo vessel near Taiping Island followed by a dockside inspection, and a separate collision and rescue operation.
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