“As evidenced on the battlefields of the Middle East and Ukraine, these systems are not only critically important but are also in extremely high demand worldwide,” said Greene, who is head of the American Institute in Taiwan, which handles the unofficial relations between Washington and Taipei.
“The sooner the special defence budget act passes, the better,” he added.
Taiwan’s government has said delays to passing the budget could mean Taiwan risks losing its place in the production and delivery queue for US weapons.
THREAT IS NOT “RANDOM TALK”
Speaking at parliament on Monday, Defence Minister Wellington Koo said the threat Taiwan faced was not just “random talk”, pointing to Chinese warships spotted in recent days to the southwest of Taiwan’s Penghu islands in the Taiwan Strait.
The latest talks between the ruling and opposition parties on the budget ended on Monday without agreement, though KMT lawmaker Hsu Chiao-hsin suggested a figure of NT$800 billion (US$25.46 billion), closer to the government’s NT$1.25 trillion.
The next talks are set for May 6.
The US is Taiwan’s most important international backer and arms supplier and in December it unveiled an US$11 billion arms package, the largest ever for Taipei.
China has repeatedly demanded that the US stop selling weapons to Taiwan.
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