Alghadeer TV Alghadeer TV
Taiwan has signed a 62-billion-dollar deal to purchase F-16 fighter jets from the United States – the biggest arms pact between Washington and Taipei which is expected to increase tensions with China.
Under the deal, which the Pentagon announced on Friday, the US agreed to sell 90 F-16 fighter jets from American aircraft manufacturer Lockheed Martin to Taiwan over a span of about 10 years.
The transaction was said to provide Taiwan with fighter jets that are equipped with state-of-the-art technologies and weapons.
The self-ruled island, which China considers part of its territory, obtained the green light from Washington last year to buy 66 new generation F-16s to modernize its air force.
The Friday deal marks the first time since 1992 that advanced fighter jets have been sold to Taiwan and is expected to infuriate China, which has repeatedly warned Washington against selling advanced weaponry to Taipei and any kind of interference in its internal affairs.
Last year, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry called on the US to “refrain” from selling the “fighter jets to Taiwan and stop arms sales to and military contact with Taiwan.”
“Otherwise, the Chinese side will surely make strong reactions, and the US will have to bear all the consequences.”
China has sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan, and under the “One China” policy, almost all world countries recognize that sovereignty, saying the island is part of China’s territory awaiting reunification.
The US, too, recognizes Chinese sovereignty over the island but has long courted Taipei in an attempt to counter Beijing.
Although Washington has no diplomatic relations with Taipei by law, it is the island’s largest weapons supplier and an avid backer of Taiwan’s secessionist president Tsai Ing-wen.
Tsai, who won a second term earlier this year, has rejected Beijing’s stance that Taiwan is part of “One China” and instead views the island as “already independent.”
