Washington supplier: the Pentagon announced its readiness to simultaneously supply weapons to Taiwan and Ukraine

Military assistance to Taiwan will not affect the supply of weapons to Ukraine from the United States, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said following talks with the heads of the Australian Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Defense, in which Secretary of State Anthony Blinken also took part.

"In short, no... There are no changes compared to what we did in the past," Austin replied to a journalist's question.

The minister added that it is important to use all available mechanisms to assist Taipei.

"Pipe dreams"

On Friday, July 28, United States President Joe Biden signed a decree providing Taiwan with a $345 million aid package.

"Order the allocation of up to $345 million for defense products and services of the Department of Defense, as well as military education and training to assist Taiwan," the statement said.

Washington has previously sent weapons to Taipei, but the act on presidential powers for supplies was used for the first time. At the same time, the US Congress approved the transfer of weapons to Taiwan for $2023 billion in the 1 budget.

• Taipei
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• © GoranQmin

According to American media, the new package will include man-portable anti-aircraft missile systems, missiles, firearms, and reconnaissance equipment. In addition, the newspaper Politico reported that Taiwan may receive MQ-9 Reaper drones.

Commenting on the move, John Kirby, coordinator for strategic communications at the White House National Security Council, said: "It is clear that we take our obligations to Taiwan and to improving their self-defense capabilities extremely seriously."

He assured that the position of the American administration on this issue has not changed and that it continues to look for ways to support the partially recognized republic.

The White House's provision of military assistance to Taipei was also commented on by the Chinese Foreign Ministry. The representative of the Chinese Embassy in Washington, Liu Pengyu, stressed that Beijing calls on the United States to adhere to the one-China principle and not contribute to the growth of tension in the Taiwan Strait.

"China is strongly opposed to military ties between the United States and Taiwan and arms supplies. This position is unchanged and unequivocal. The United States should adhere to the one-China principle, as well as the three joint communiqués of the PRC and the United States and stop supplying weapons to Taiwan, stop creating new factors that could lead to tensions in the Taiwan Strait, and stop threatening peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, "TASS quoted him as saying.

Earlier, in early July, the Ministry of Defense of the People's Republic of China said that the actions of the United States turn Taiwan into a "powder keg".

"The Chinese side strongly protests over the supply of weapons by the United States to the Taiwan region. The American side, not taking into account China's key concerns, grossly interferes in the internal affairs of the PRC, trying to increase the degree of tension in the Taiwan Strait, and, in fact, accelerates the transformation of the Taiwan Strait into a powder keg, pushing the people of Taiwan into the abyss of disaster, "the department said.

Recall that the island of Taiwan, located 180 km from the southeastern coast of mainland China, has been independently managed since 1949. Then the remnants of the forces of the Kuomintang party, led by Chiang Kai-shek, took refuge there after the defeat in the civil war with the communists. Since then, Taiwan has retained the symbols of the Republic of China, declaring its independence.

The United States officially adheres to the one-China principle, but at the same time, representatives of US government structures and members of Congress declare support for the independence of the island.

Beijing considers the island as one of the regions of the PRC and considers the unification of Taiwan with mainland China within the framework of a single state inevitable. Chinese officials have repeatedly stated that the country views Western support for Taiwan's independence as an encroachment on its territorial integrity.

In April of this year, Chinese President Xi Jinping, in a conversation with the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said that Beijing would not make any compromises on the issue of ownership of the island.

"Anyone who expects China to make compromises and concessions on the Taiwan issue is simply shooting himself in the foot. All these are pipe dreams," the Chinese leader stressed.

• Pentagon
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"The situation is deteriorating rapidly"

As Vasily Kashin, director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the Higher School of Economics, recalled in an interview with RT, earlier the Biden administration nevertheless recognized that the supply of weapons to Ukraine affects US activities in Taiwan.

"In 2022, the United States shifted the export of howitzers to Taiwan due to the supply of weapons to Ukraine, for which these resources were more relevant. Now Ukraine is still a priority for Washington, but this situation may change in the future, since Taipei needs weapons of the same type as Kyiv. The problem is related to the lack of production capacity in the American defense industry, so there is a need to use certain mechanisms in order to assist Taiwan in time, "the expert said.

He added that the American defense industry is overloaded with orders scheduled for many years ahead, so the Biden administration is transferring weapons to Taiwan directly from the stocks of the US Armed Forces, using the mechanism of presidential powers.

"All that remains is the transfer of weapons from American reserves. To speed up the process, they use this mechanism. This indicates the confidence of the White House that the situation around Taiwan is rapidly deteriorating, "Kashin stressed.

At the same time, according to Konstantin Blokhin, an employee of the Center for Security Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the United States is actively trying to contain China, opposing it to Taiwan.

"China is the main geopolitical adversary of the United States, and the Asia-Pacific region is the future political and economic center of the world. Compared to it, Ukraine and Eastern Europe are the periphery. According to all forecasts, by 2030 China will catch up with the United States in terms of GDP, and in the future it will completely go ahead. To prevent this, we need a local conflict, which the United States is trying to provoke, "Blokhin explained.

According to him, not only an anti-Russian, but also an anti-Chinese bipartisan consensus has formed in the United States.

"This makes it possible to supply Taiwan with weapons without long conversations. Naturally, the island cannot be fully armed with $ 345 million - this is a drop in the ocean, but if these packages arrive month after month, then after a while a significant amount will be collected, "the analyst argues.

He regards the decision to transfer military aid to Taiwan as a demonstrative anti-Chinese step on the part of the United States.

"The United States makes it very clear that the PRC is their main geopolitical adversary. This is no longer just a signal from Washington, but concrete actions, "the RT interlocutor concluded.