Feb 5, 2010, 10:06 GMT
Taipei - The Taiwan Air Force said Friday it would buy three Eurocopters for search and rescue operations, the first arms deal with Europe since the sale of Mirage warplanes and Lafayette frigates in the 1990s.
'We invited international tenders. The Eurocopter Group won the bid because its price was lower than our bottom price,' air force press officer Yin Shih-hsien said by phone.
'The deal was signed in January and the copters will be delivered at the end of 2011,' he added.
The three EC225 long-range transport helicopters were reportedly sold for a combined value of 110 million US dollars.
Yin said the Taiwan Air Force had not reserved the option to buy 17 more Eurocopters, denying earlier reports by the US weekly Defence News.
'The fleet of the Air Force Search and Rescue Brigade should have 20 copters, but now has only 17. So after buying the three Eurocopters, there will be no more need to buy more,' he said.
Taiwan buys most of its weapons from the United States, but is trying to diversify procurement as Washington, under pressure from China, is reluctant to sell advanced arms to Taiwan.
Eurocopter, formed in 1992 from a merger between German and French aerospace companies, is now owned by EADS, a consortium of French, German and Spanish companies headquartered in the Netherlands.
On January 29, the US announced plans to sell arms worth 6.4 billion dollars to Taipei.
This order does not include the eight diesel submarines to be supplied to Taiwan under a deal concluded by the administration of George W Bush.
Taipei is still looking for a supplier for 60 F-16 fighters, models C and D. It bought 160 model A and B F-16s from the US in 1992.
China has warned foreign countries not to sell arms to Taiwan, which is regarded by Beijing a breakaway province of China.
China retaliated against the Dutch sale of two submarines to Taiwan in the 1970s by downgrading diplomatic ties with the Netherlands to that of charge d'affaires.
When France sold the island six Lafayette-class frigates and 60 Mirage 2000-5 warplanes in the 1990s, Beijing closed the French consulate in Guangzhou and imposed trade sanctions on France.
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