March 12, 2024
The White House on March 11 issued the US president’s fiscal year 2025 budget request, which included an historic investment in Taiwan through foreign military financing (FMF) and other channels with the aim to further bolster Taiwan’s deterrence capabilities and maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
At a press briefing, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Verma stated that this was the first time for a specific line item on Taiwan to be included in a budget, thus reaffirming the US commitment to security assistance for Taiwan and to a free and open Indo-Pacific. The US Department of Defense has also earmarked US$500 million to replenish US weapons inventory depleted by military aid provided to Taiwan through the presidential drawdown authority (PDA) mechanism.
The US administration has continuously employed diverse policy tools, taken concrete actions, and sent clear messages on assisting Taiwan in strengthening its defensive capabilities and defending the status quo of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China (Taiwan) sincerely welcomes and appreciates these gestures.
The Department of State briefing on the 2024 fiscal year budget included content on Taiwan’s security for the first time. The Biden administration has now gone further by debuting a specific line item in its 2025 budget for military assistance to Taiwan. President Biden also made unprecedented remarks in his State of the Union Address of March 7 that the United States was standing up for peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, while the US government has continued to regularize arms sales to Taiwan. These concrete actions by the United States have shown that it pays high regard to bolstering Taiwan’s defense capabilities and to peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and in the Indo-Pacific region.
Taiwan will continue to implement national defense reforms, enhance national defense capabilities, and closely work with the United States and other like-minded countries so as to actively uphold peace, stability, and prosperity across the Taiwan Strait and in the region.