Trump’s remarks provoke talk of raising Taiwan’s defense budget
Remarks made by U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump that Taiwan should pay the U.S. for defense have sent shockwaves across the island. In the latest, Robert O’Brien, who served as national security advisor under Trump said he believed his former boss meant that he wanted Taiwan to contribute more to its own defense, and even raise its military expenditures to 5% of the GDP. Looking at Taiwan’s 2024 defense budget of NT$606.8 billion, it only stands at 2.5% of the GDP. In contrast, other nations that are threatened by their neighbors such as Korea and Israel spend 2.8% and 5% respectively. One leading military scholar says Taiwan still has room to increase its military spending.
Robert O’Brien (2023)
Former White House National Security Advisor
We’ve got 18 billion dollars of arms sales approved for Taiwan and we need to get those systems delivered now and not wait for them.
Robert O’Brien, who served as national security advisor under former president Donald Trump, visited Taiwan last year, where he stressed that arms sales projects with Taiwan should not be delayed. Recently, Trump said that Taiwan should pay the U.S. for defense. O’Brien interprets this to mean Trump thinks Taiwan should make more fiscal contributions to its own defense. O’Brien believes the free world is now aware of China’s threat and Taiwan should consider increasing its defense spending to at least 5% of its GDP.
Taiwan’s annual defense budget has actually been increasing incrementally over recent years. It started out at NT$349.7 billion in 2016, NT$355.7 billion in 2017, and exceeded NT$400 billion in 2020. Last year, it soared to NT$580.3 billion and this year it hit a new high of NT$606.8 billion. Taiwan’s defense spending as a proportion of its GDP has increased from a previous 2% to 2.5% this year.
However, military analysts still believe that compared with other nations that are threatened by neighboring countries, such as Israel and South Korea, Taiwan’s defense budget indeed has more room for growth.
Su Tzu-yun
Institute for National Defense and Security Research
In the international community, there is a very important thing: all for one, one for all. It’s also if I help myself, others will help me. Compared with other countries facing threats, such as Israel, its defense budget is 5% of GDP, Singapore’s stands at 3% and South Korea’s is between 2.8% and 2.9%. This shows that our own defense budget indeed still has room for a reasonable increase. Trump’s so-called charging Taiwan insurance fees and alleging that Taiwan steals America’s chip business may be an oversimplification. What he should be talking about is the responsibilities for allies for self-defense.
Since former president Tsai Ing-wen took office in 2016, each year there had been no shortage of major arms purchases from the U.S. Many in U.S. political circles reckon that if Trump returns to the White House, there is a high chance that O’Brien will return as White House national security advisor. This is bound to affect the direction of Taiwan-U.S. arms deals.
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2024-07-19
