TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The US will push for stable ties with China rather than confrontation, the Pentagon said in its National Defense Strategy report published on Friday.
The defense department said it will “open a wider range of military-to-military communications with Beijing” to de-escalate tensions in the Indo-Pacific. The Pentagon said it did not seek to overpower China, but “to prevent anyone, including China, from being able to dominate us or our allies” and to uphold regional peace.
The department said it will build up a strong defense along the First Island Chain and encourage and assist regional partners to contribute more to collective defense. “In doing so, we will reinforce deterrence by denial so that all nations recognize that their interests are best served through peace and restraint,” it said.
Those contributions “will be vital to deterring and balancing China,” the department said, adding that partners share a vision of a “free and open regional order.”
The report comes as American Institute in Taiwan Director Raymond Greene praised Taiwan’s efforts to bolster its defense. At a defense forum on Thursday, Greene said he was “deeply impressed with the scope and pace of Taiwan’s defense reforms.”
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.
Greene also said the Lai administration’s focus on purchasing asymmetric weapons, building resilient and distributed communications and battlefield-awareness capabilities, and fully integrating air and missile defense systems aligns with Taiwan’s military needs.
On Friday, opposition lawmakers blocked a review of the special defense budget for the eighth time, further delaying a reading of the draft bill.
