Fei Hung-po leads arms group to US

Taipei Times ^ | 4/19/02 | Brian Hsu

[Enemy Of The State]

Fei Hung-po leads arms group to US

DEFENSE NEEDS: High on the Taiwanese admiral's list will be finding a way to secure the 12 submarines the US agreed to provide the nation in earlier talks, but have yet to materialize
By Brian Hsu
STAFF REPORTER

A delegation led by Deputy Chief of the General Staff Admiral Fei Hung-po (¶OÂEªi) flew last weekend to the US to discuss arms procurement with the US military, defense sources said.

The meeting is a temporary substitute for annual arms talks between the two countries, which came to an end last year.

At last year's talks, the George W. Bush administration approved the most significant arms sale to Taiwan in decades. The US agreed to sell Taipei hardware that it had long been desperate to obtain, including diesel-powered submarines.

Arms procurement

* Deputy Chief of the General Staff Admiral Fei Hung-po flew to the US last week to discuss the nation's arms procurement needs.

* The admiral is expected to raise the issue of how Taiwan will acquire the 12 submarines the US promised in earlier talks.

* Defense officials say Fei will not discuss new arms purchases by Taiwan because previous sale agreements should meet the nation's needs.

* Fei also wants to find a framework for future arms-sale negotiations between Taiwan and the US.

High on Fei's list at the talks is how the US will acquire the 12 submarines it had promised, defense sources said.

But Fei will not raise the issue of new arms purchases at the meeting, as it is believed that the items the US has already agreed to sell Taiwan are adequate for the time being, sources said.

However, Fei is prepared to discuss with the US the maintenance of arms-procurement talks between the two nation's defense ministries each year.

The Ministry of National Defense is reluctant to accept the proposed replacement of the annual ministerial-level arms talk between the two countries with a case-by-case discussion with the American Institute in Taiwan.

Fei will also suggest during his trip to the US that the Pentagon send higher-level officials to Taiwan to discuss military exchanges, sources said.

The Pentagon currently sends only medium-ranked officials to Taiwan on a regular basis. A Pentagon official in charge of regional affairs, for instance, is only a major in rank but is one of the most important US military officials routinely flying to Taiwan.

The ministry hopes that higher-ranking officials, preferably generals from the Pentagon or other branches of the US military, will be visiting Taiwan and meet their Asian counterparts, sources said.

A US navy admiral was said to have secretly visited Taiwan in April last year before the EP-3 incident, but the US government refused to confirm the trip.

Regular visits by high-ranking US military officials are expected to take place soon, since military ties between Taiwan and the US are now at their the strongest since diplomatic relations between the two were cut in 1979.

In recent years, a number of high-ranking Taiwanese military officials, including the defense minister, have visited the US on well-publicized tours.