TAIPEI - A stalled United States Bill on military aid to Ukraine, which will also help fund weapons for Taiwan, was discussed this week during a visit to Taipei by US lawmakers, two of the participants said on Feb 23.
The Republican Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Mr Mike Johnson, has so far blocked passage of the Bill that includes US$60 billion (S$80 billion) in new funding for Ukraine. Former Republican president Donald Trump opposes aid for Kyiv.
The Bill would also spend almost US$2.6 billion on efforts to deter China. Most of that money, about US$1.9 billion, would be to replace US munitions provided to Taiwan.
China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, ignoring the strong objections of the government in Taipei, and has been ramping up military pressure to assert those claims.
Mr Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democratic member of the House select committee on China, told reporters at the end of a visit to Taiwan it was vital to pass the Bill.
“Every single meeting we had in Taiwan focused on Ukraine for at least part of the meeting. It was in conjunction with our discussion of the supplemental appropriations package,” he said.
“We have to beat back this criminal invasion by Putin to send a message to anyone else including Xi Jinping about Taiwan,” Mr Krishnamoorthi added, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin whose forces invaded Ukraine two years ago, and China’s leader Xi.
The lawmakers meetings in Taipei included President Tsai Ing-wen and president-elect Lai Ching-te, who won the election in January and takes office in May.
The committee’s chair, Republican Congressman Mike Gallagher, who is leading the delegation Mr Krishnamoorthi is on, said what happened to Ukraine mattered to Taiwan.
“One take way from this trip is, for those who suggest we cannot provide lethal assistance to Ukraine because we need those resources in Taiwan, I think you have to contend with the fact that the leaders of Taiwan certainly don’t want us to abandon Ukraine,” he said.
“The outcome there does matter for cross-strait deterrence. I’m not saying it’s decisive for it, but it’s at least correlated.”
The US, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but is its most important international backer and supplier of arms, though there is a large backlog of orders, like for Harpoon anti-ship missiles.
Mr Krishnamoorthi said the funding Bill also invests in the US military industrial base to be able to provide a platform to deal with that backlog.
“This supplemental appropriations is not only crucial for sending a message, not only for deterrence, but also for repairing our industrial base and clearing up the backlog,” he said. REUTERS
