Talks between Taiwan and the United States about a possible participation of the American National Guard in the training of Taiwanese reservists have been going on for some time.

These considerations now appear to be taking shape.

Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen said Tuesday during a meeting with US Senator Tammy Duckworth that there are plans for "cooperation between the US National Guard and the Taiwan Armed Forces".

Your country is looking forward to “closer cooperation on regional security issues”.

She did not give details.

Taiwan is in the process of reforming its reserve system.

A new committee was created for this purpose in January.

Some of the reservists are to be called up for training more frequently and for longer periods in the future.

The need for this arose because military service in Taiwan has been reduced in recent years from two years to one year and now to four months.

Taiwan's defense plans envisage mobilizing 260,000 reservists in the event of war.

110,000 of them are to receive extended training sessions by lottery this year.

The US Department of Defense has long urged Taiwan to increase military service and reservist training and increase the military budget to do so.

Since the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, American pressure has been increasing on Taiwan to speed up its defense reforms.

There is also criticism of military training in Taiwan itself.

It is considered outdated and impractical.

In addition, Taiwan lacks trainers.

Target practice takes up only a small part.

Daily flights of Chinese war planes

An American law signed in December 2021 instructs the Secretary of Defense to examine the feasibility and usefulness of a training partnership between the National Guard and the Taiwanese armed forces.

The National Guard reports to the states.

At least one state would have to agree to such cooperation.

In the meantime, Hawaii was under discussion.

Disaster and emergency relief, cyber defence, communications security, medical services and the use of National Guard advisers to train Taiwanese reservists were mentioned as possible fields of cooperation.

In December, Taiwan's defense minister, Chiu Kuo-cheng, confirmed talks on such cooperation.

Tsai's comments are another indication that the United States is working with renewed urgency to increase Taiwan's deterrence from China.

President Joe Biden said a few days ago that the United States would intervene militarily in the event of a Chinese attack on Taiwan.

This felt like a departure from the policy of strategic ambiguity, according to which America leaves it open how it would react in such a case.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken later said American policy had not changed.

However, China's "increasingly provocative rhetoric and actions" have changed.

As an example, he cited the almost daily flights of Chinese warplanes into Taiwan's air defense zone.

This is a zone declared by Taiwan itself, which goes far beyond the internationally recognized airspace.

Possibly in response to Biden's comments, the Chinese Air Force deployed 30 aircraft to this air defense zone on Monday, according to Taipei.

It was the second highest number of aircraft so far this year.

Two Su-35 fighter jets were reported for the first time.

The maneuver coincided with an unannounced visit to Taipei by US congressmen.

Taiwan said it had launched fighter pilots and activated missile defense systems.

The almost daily maneuvers are wearing away the limited Taiwanese resources.

In the past few days, China had also held naval maneuvers off the coast of Taiwan.