The Trump administration announced $11.1 billion in arms sales to Taiwan, the largest ever US weapons package for the island which is under increasing military pressure from China.
The Taiwan arms sale announcement is the second under US President Donald Trump’s current administration, and comes as Beijing ramps up its military and diplomatic pressure against Taiwan, whose government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims.
The proposed arms sales cover eight items, including HIMARS rocket systems, howitzers, Javelin anti-tank missiles, Altius loitering munition drones and parts for other equipment, Taiwan’s defence ministry said in a statement.
“The US continues to assist Taiwan in maintaining sufficient self-defence capabilities and in rapidly building strong deterrent power and leveraging asymmetric warfare advantages, which form the foundation for maintaining regional peace and stability,” it added.
The package must be approved by the US Congress, where Taiwan has widespread cross-party support.
In a series of separate statements announcing details of the weapons deal, the Pentagon said the arms sales serve US national, economic and security interests by supporting Taiwan’s continuing efforts to modernise its armed forces and to maintain a “credible defensive capability”.
Pushed by the US, Taiwan has been working to transform its armed forces to be able to wage “asymmetric warfare”, using mobile, smaller and often cheaper weapons which still pack a targeted punch, like drones.
“Our country will continue to promote defence reforms, strengthen whole-of-society defence resilience, demonstrate our determination to defend ourselves, and safeguard peace through strength,” Taiwan presidential office spokesperson Karen Kuo said in a statement, thanking the US for the sales.
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te last month announced a $40bn supplementary defence budget, to run from 2026 to 2033, saying there was “no room for compromise on national security”.
China’s foreign ministry expressed anger, as it does with all US arms sales to Taiwan, saying the deal “severely undermines peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait” and demanded an end to such deals.
“By aiding ‘Taiwan independence’ with weapons, the US side will only bring fire upon itself; using Taiwan to contain China is absolutely doomed to fail,” ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said in Beijing.
Rupert Hammond-Chambers, president of the US-Taiwan Business Council, said weapons like the HIMARS, which have been used extensively by Ukraine against Russian forces, could play an essential role in destroying an invading Chinese force.
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