TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Army Chief of Staff Yang Hai-ming (楊海明) confirmed during a question-and-answer session at the Legislative Yuan on Monday (Oct. 28) that Taiwan will sign a Letter of Offer and Acceptance (LOA) in November with the U.S. and buy 108 M1A2T Abrams tanks.

Kuomintang (KMT) legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) asked Yang if the LOA was to be signed next month since it had been included on the government's budget list. Yang answered, "Yes," and said the government had been working closely with the U.S. to finalize the LOA through channels such as the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), reported Liberty Times.

Yang added that Taiwan also discussed industrial cooperation with the U.S. and both sides will reach an agreement before the LOA is signed. However, legislators said they still had concerns over the NT$250 million (US$8.2 million) budget for the tanks and decided to freeze the money until written project reports are provided, reported Storm Media.

This year, the U.S. has approved major arms sales to Taiwan that include 250 Stinger surface-to-air missiles and 66 F-16V fighter jets.