TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — American Institute in Taiwan Director Raymond Greene on Thursday praised Taiwan’s determination to fulfill its key role in maintaining regional peace.
During a forum at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, Greene said he was “deeply impressed with the scope and pace of Taiwan’s defense reforms,” according to an AIT press release.
He cited President Lai Ching-te’s (賴清德) pledge to raise the defense budget to 5% of GDP by 2030 and the proposal of a NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.5 billion) special defense budget to achieve that goal. These moves show that Taiwan is making smarter defense spending choices, he said.
The director said the Lai administration’s focus on purchasing asymmetric weapons, building resilient and distributed communications and battlefield awareness capabilities, and integrating air and missile defense systems fully aligns with Taiwan’s military needs. He reaffirmed the US commitment to faster arms deliveries.
Greene pointed to Taiwan’s focus on “instilling the concept of mission command,” which he said was part of an asymmetric strategy used by democracies. “Trusting skilled subordinate commanders on the battlefield to execute their assigned tasks without detailed direction from above provides both resilience to attacks on key command and control nodes as well as operational flexibility,” he said.
He also highlighted Taiwan’s use of its urban environment. Troops have conducted drills in neighborhoods and in Taipei MRT stations during Han Kuang 47 in July. Additionally, civil groups and local governments have participated in drills nationwide, showing that “deterrence is increasingly a whole-of-society effort.”
The US is also working with Taiwan’s industrial sector to expand its domestic defense industrial base and transform the country into a major hub in the global defense supply chain, Greene said.
Greene emphasized that the US has always insisted on maintaining the status quo until a peaceful resolution to cross-strait issues can be achieved. “Taiwan’s actions to restore the cross-Strait military balance will remove the use of force as an option and give Taiwan the confidence to engage in dialogue at the appropriate time,” he said.
