Taiwan president commissions two US-made destroyers

Nov 2, 2006, 11:52 GMT

Taipei - Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian commissioned two Kidd-class former US destroyers Thursday and called on the parliament to pass a special budget to buy modern US arms to counter military threats from China.

The commissioning ceremony took place at the Su'ao Naval Base on the northeast coast. The 9,6000-ton ships are the last two of the four Kidd-class destroyers Taiwan has ordered from the US, and are the largest warships Taiwan has acquired.

The four destroyers will help defend the 200-kilometre Taiwan Strait, replacing a fleet of Yang-class destroyers which served in the US Navy during World War II as Fletcher-class destroyers but were sold to Taiwan in 1978 and renamed Yang-class destroyers.

'It is extremely difficult for Taiwan to acquire modern weapons. Some weapons, like the frigates from France and submarines from the Netherlands, are are just a single deal. So we must treasure every opportunity that can boost our self-defence,' Chen said.

'The US representative office in Taipei recently held a news conference to express serious concern over the failure in passing the arms bill in parliament. Some of us ignored our ally's advice and used emotional words to blast it,' he said, referring to opposition lawmakers' condemning Young for 'intimidating and blackmailing' Taiwan.

'So once again I appeal to the opposition leaders to support passing the military budget ... because without a strong self-defence, peace is like a castle built on sand,' he said.

Chen was referring to the 14.5-billion-US-dollar package which was approved by President George W Bush in 2001. The package includes 12 P3-C anti-submarine aircraft, eight conventional submarines and six PAC-III anti-missile batteries.

Taiwan's opposition lawmakers have been blocking the passage of the arms purchase budget, citing high cost and late delivery.

Last week Washington's de facto ambassador to Taiwan, Stephen Young, urged Taiwan to pass the budget in this fall session, warning that the package may not be on the table when a new US president takes office in 2009.