President Joe Biden\u2019s administration has approved a military transfer to Taiwan under the Foreign Military Financing, or FMF, program normally used for sovereign states, according to a notification sent to Congress.<\/p>\n
The notification, which was seen by Reuters on Wednesday, informs congressional committees of the State Department\u2019s intention to obligate up to $80 million in FMF funds in support of Taiwan.<\/p>\n
\u201cFMF will be used to strengthen Taiwan\u2019s self-defense capabilities through joint and combined defense capability and enhanced maritime domain awareness and maritime security capability,\u201d the notification said.<\/p>\n
Taiwan\u2019s defense ministry expressed its thanks, but said it had no comment on the details of the aid, noting that the United States has already been helping strengthen the island\u2019s combat capabilities under existing policies and laws.<\/p>\n
The Taiwan notification was first reported by the Associated Press.<\/p>\n
Representative Michael McCaul, Republican chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, said he was glad the administration was \u201cfinally\u201d providing FMF to Taiwan.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese weapons will not only help Taiwan and protect other democracies in the region, but also strengthen the U.S. deterrence posture and ensure our national security from an increasingly aggressive CCP (Chinese Communist Party),\u201d McCaul said in a statement.<\/p>\n
FMF, the largest military assistance account managed by the State Department, provides primarily grant assistance to foreign governments for the purchase of U.S. defense equipment and military training under the Foreign Military Sales program.<\/p>\n
A State Department official confirmed the notification to Congress and said the decision to provide Taiwan with FMF assistance did not reflect any change in U.S. policy.<\/p>\n
Beijing claims the democratically governed island as its own territory, and warns against any forms of \u201cofficial exchanges\u201d between Washington and Taipei. Taiwan rejects China\u2019s sovereignty claims and says only Taiwan\u2019s people can decide their future.<\/p>\n China has repeatedly complained to the United States about military aid and sales to the island. Its defense ministry has said the U.S. military must stop all forms of \u201cmilitary collusion\u201d with the island.<\/p>\n The United States, Taiwan\u2019s most important arms supplier,\u00a0last month announced\u00a0a Taiwan weapons aid package worth up to $345 million.<\/p>\n Last week, the United States also approved a possible $500 million\u00a0sale\u00a0to Taiwan of infrared search and track systems for F-16 fighter jets, as well as other equipment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n[ad_2]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [ad_1] President Joe Biden\u2019s administration has approved a military transfer to Taiwan under the Foreign Military Financing, or FMF, program normally used for sovereign states, according to a notification sent to Congress. The notification, which was seen by Reuters on Wednesday, informs congressional committees of the State Department\u2019s intention to obligate up to $80 million …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5811,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5809"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_focal-760x428,f_auto,q_auto:best\/mpx\/2704722219\/2023_08\/f_mo_lon_chinadrills_230819-f7gjs7.jpg\"\/)
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