TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The US could leverage logistics agreements with Taiwan to respond to Chinese aggression, Trey Meeks, a senior defense fellow at the Washington-based Center for a New American Security, told Voice of America recently.

Meeks agreed with other observers, saying that cost-effective strategies such as the US-Taiwan Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA) would allow US military jets to refuel in Taiwan to demonstrate support. ACSAs allow the US military to exchange “logistic support, supplies, and services” with its partners, according to the Pentagon’s International Cooperation Office.

American fighter jets could refuel in Taiwan whenever Chinese military aircraft cross the Taiwan Strait median line, the defense fellow proposed. Another possible response could be a port call by a US Coast Guard vessel already in the region. This would also signal to China that US naval ships could be deployed if necessary. 

US military aircraft landing in Taiwan is not unprecedented. Following Typhoon Morakot in 2009, the US Navy dispatched marines and sailors to Taiwan on Super Stallion helicopters to provide aid. In April 2015, two F-18 fighter jets made an emergency stop in Tainan after one experienced a mechanical problem. When a US Senate delegation arrived in Taiwan to donate COVID-19 vaccines in June 2021, they flew in a C-17 cargo plane.