MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd August, 2023) US President Joe Biden will ask Congress to fund arms supply to Taiwan as a part of a supplemental budget request for Ukraine, the Financial Times newspaper said on Wednesday, citing sources.
The White House wants to speed up arms supply to Taiwan in order to boost its defense capabilities in light of the perceived rising threat from Beijing, the newspaper said.
If the request is approved by Congress, Taiwan will for the first time receive weaponry through a US taxpayer-funded system known as "foreign military financing," the media added. The system has been used to send weapons to Ukraine.
Biden is expected to submit the request this month, the newspaper said.
The request follows the White House's announcement in late July that the US would supply Taiwan with $345 million worth of weaponry.
In mid-July, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said that the US and its allies must step up their support of Taiwan in order to improve the island's defense capabilities.
China has urged the US to stop selling weapons to Taiwan on multiple occasions. The Chinese foreign ministry said the arms supplies both fanned tensions in the region and violated the One-China principle.
Tensions over Taiwan significantly increased last August after then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi traveled to Taipei despite Beijing's warnings against such a visit. China condemned Pelosi's trip, which it regarded as a gesture of support for separatism, and launched large-scale military exercises in the vicinity of the island.
Taiwan has been governed independently from mainland China since 1949. Beijing views the island as its province, while Taiwan - a territory with its own elected government - maintains that it is an autonomous country but stops short of declaring independence. Beijing opposes any official contacts of foreign states with Taipei and considers Chinese sovereignty over the island indisputable.
