TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — US President-elect Donald Trump's pick for Pentagon policy advocated prioritizing weapons shipments to Taiwan over Ukraine and for Taipei to double its defense budget.
On Sunday, Trump announced a series of Department of Defense appointments via his social media platform "Truth Social." Elbridge Colby, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development, will be nominated as undersecretary of defense for policy.
Trump lauded Colby as "a highly respected advocate for our America First foreign and defense policy." He added that Colby would work closely with his defense secretary nominee, Pete Hegseth, to “restore our military power, and achieve my policy of peace through strength.”
This year, Colby has repeatedly urged Taiwan to increase its defense spending from 2.5% of its GDP to a minimum of 5%. He argued that Taiwan’s large foreign reserves of nearly US$580 billion could be used to fund this.
In a Washington Post op-ed in May, Colby said that Ukraine and Taiwan require many of the same weapons. He predicted that given the limited US stockpiles of such armaments and the slow buildup of US manufacturing capacity, Taiwan's backlog would worsen as China continues to build its military and the Russo-Ukrainian war continues.
Therefore, Colby argued that the US must ramp up its shipment of vital weapons to Taiwan including offensive systems such as HIMARS, ATACMS, GMLRS, and drones and defensive systems including NASAMS, Patriots, Harpoons, Stingers, and Javelins. He said Taiwan needs them to enable its ground troops to thwart an amphibious invasion.
Colby said the Biden administration should treat Taiwan's defense with greater urgency and focus on bolstering the US' defensive perimeter in Asia. He suggested US European allies take the lead in helping Ukraine, as Europe must strengthen its defenses against Russia while Washington fixates on the “much bigger challenge from China.”
In an interview with Nikkei Asia in August, Colby also criticized Japan’s defense efforts as insufficient despite tensions caused by China and North Korea. He asserted that Japan should triple its defense budget to at least 3% of its GDP and “work closely to integrate with the US to be able to conduct a denial defense" against an invasion of Taiwan by China.
According to The Japan Times, if the US Senate approves Colby’s nomination, he would “have the ear of the incoming president” on international alliances in East Asia along with planning and strategy on Pentagon China policy, including Taiwan contingencies. The newspaper pointed out that Colby is calling for Japan to take more immediate action to counter China's military buildup.
The Korea JoongAng Daily highlighted Colby’s role as one of the architects of the 2018 US National Defense Strategy, which adopted an "ultra-hardline policy" on China during Trump’s first term. In an April interview with the newspaper's affiliate JoongAng Ilbo, Colby asserted that the next US administration’s primary diplomatic and security focus should be achieving “military balance” with China, advocating for a shift in US troop priorities in South Korea “from defense against North Korea to deterring China.”