Trump Aims to Exceed First Term’s Weapons Sales to Taiwan, Officials Say

Date: 30 May 2025 - 22:01

News ID: ۱۴۰۱۲۶

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taipei, according to two U.S. officials.
The Trump administration aims to ramp up weapons sales to Taipei to a level exceeding the president’s approximately $18.3 billion sales during his first term in office.
Washington claims its arms sales to Chinese Taipei is part of the administrations’ efforts to counterbalance Beijing’s growing pressure on the island.
The report said Trump’s planned weapons sales to Chinese Taipei will include missiles, munitions and drones.
The two officials said they expect Washington’s approval for weapons sales to Chinese Taipei over the next four years to surpass the figure in Trump’s first term in office from January 2017 to January 2021.
They added that the Trump administration is mounting pressure on members of Taiwan’s opposition parties not to oppose the Taipei government’s efforts to increase military spending to 3 percent of the island’s budget.
Washington is Taipei’s main international backer and arms supplier despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties between them.
China’s foreign ministry reiterated its opposition to U.S. arms sales to Taiwan on Friday, with spokesperson Lin Jian telling reporters that the United States should stop creating “new factors” that could lead to tensions in the Taiwan Strait.
Beijing, which includes Chinese Taipei a sovereign part of its territorial integrity, has vowed to “reunify” with the island, by force if necessary.
Meanwhile, the pro-West President Lai Ching-te and his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) aim to increase military spending to 3 percent of GDP this year through a special defense budget.
However, the island’s parliament is controlled by the pro-Beijing Kuomintang (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), with both parties opposing the increase in military spending.
Several sources in Taipei familiar with the matter confirmed that Washington is mounting pressure on opposition politicians to give in to the US demand for Taipei’s increased weapons budget.
“We’re messaging pretty hard to the opposition. Don’t get in the way of this. This isn’t a Taiwanese partisan question. This is a Taiwanese survival question,” one of the anonymous US officials told Reuters.
New weapons packages are expected to focus on missiles, munitions and drones, cost-effective means to help improve Taiwan’s chances of rebuffing any military action by much larger forces.