{"id":1412,"date":"2026-06-18T10:50:51","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T10:50:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=1412"},"modified":"2026-06-18T10:50:51","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T10:50:51","slug":"taiwan-hopes-us-arms-sale-package-can-be-approved-soon-president-says-south-china-sea-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=1412","title":{"rendered":"Taiwan hopes US arms sale package can be approved soon, president says | South China Sea News"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>2 Minute, 1 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>


\n<\/p>\n

\n

Taiwan\u2019s President William Lai Ching-te reiterates his desire for talks based on \u2018parity and respect\u2019 with China.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Published On 18 Jun 2026<\/span>18 Jun 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Taiwan\u2019s president has said he hopes the United States approves a $14bn arms sale \u201cas soon as possible\u201d, reiterating that the island \u201crejects unification\u201d with China.<\/p>\n

Taiwan relies heavily on US support to deter any potential Chinese attack, and Washington has put pressure on Taipei to increase its defence spending.<\/p>\n

\n

Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n

list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n

But arms sales also complicate ties between Washington and Beijing<\/a>. Democratically governed Taiwan is viewed by China as its own territory,<\/a> and Beijing has \u2060stepped up military and diplomatic pressure on the island.<\/p>\n

In May, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the $14bn deal was \u201cunder review\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Taiwan Foreign Correspondents\u2019 Club in Taipei on Thursday, Taiwan\u2019s President William Lai Ching-te reiterated his desire for talks based on \u201cparity and respect\u201d with China, but said only the Taiwanese people can decide their future.<\/p>\n

\u201cTaiwan\u2019s safeguarding of its own national security and maintaining its democratic and free way of life, \u200cits refusal to accept unification, and its refusal to accept rule by the Chinese Communist Party should not be seen as a provocation against China,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Taiwan said the US\u2019s commitments to Taiwan<\/a> have not changed, as it is required under domestic law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself. A top US military official said<\/a> last month Washington was pausing its $14bn arms sale to Taiwan to conserve munitions for its war on Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will continue to maintain close communication with the US government, and we also hope the arms purchases can be approved as \u2060soon as possible,\u201d Lai said.<\/p>\n

The Taiwanese president has championed increased defence spending, though last month Taiwan\u2019s parliament only approved two-thirds of the $40bn defence budget Lai had proposed, cutting the part that had been meant for drones and domestically produced weapons.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Taiwan\u2019s defence ministry said it was proposing another special \u200cdefence package worth $210bn new Taiwan dollars ($6.64bn) for surveillance and small unmanned surface drones.<\/p>\n

Lai said China should renounce the use of force and its military activities in the Western Pacific, as Taiwan\u2019s arms purchases send an important message to the world that it is willing to defend \u200citself.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\n \n
\n \n \"Happy\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Happy <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n \n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Sad\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Sad <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Excited\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Excited <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Sleepy\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Sleepy <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n \n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Angry\"\n <\/a>\n
Angry<\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Surprise\"\n <\/a>\n
Surprise<\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Taiwan\u2019s President William Lai Ching-te reiterates his desire for talks based on \u2018parity and respect\u2019 with China. Published On 18 Jun 202618 Jun 2026 Taiwan\u2019s president has said he hopes the United States approves a $14bn arms sale \u201cas soon as possible\u201d, reiterating that the island \u201crejects unification\u201d with China. Taiwan relies heavily on US…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1412","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-international-news","8":"category-news"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}