The U.S. State Department has approved the sale to Taiwan of F-16 fighter jet spare and repair parts for an estimated $80 million, the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency said on Wednesday.
The sale will help “improve the security of the recipient and assist in maintaining political stability, military balance, and economic progress in the region,” the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said in a statement.
Taiwan’s defense ministry thanked the United States and said the sale would boost the combat and defense needs of its air force. The ministry said the sale would be finalized in July.
“With normalized 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-defense,” it said in a statement.
Despite Taipei’s adamant opposition, Beijing has repeatedly demanded that the United States, Taiwan’s main arms supplier, stop providing the island with weapons. Beijing claims the island as its own.
A request for comment was not immediately answered by China’s defense ministry.
Taiwan’s defense minister, Wellington Koo, told reporters in parliament on Thursday that Taiwan needs to strengthen its defenses in order to contribute to “effective deterrence” in the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy.
“But for Taiwan-U.S. military cooperation, there are many things we can only do, not tell,” he said.
