TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan’s cabinet plans defence spending next year of T$949.5 billion ($31.27 billion), amounting to 3.32% of gross domestic product, the official Central News Agency said on Thursday, set to cross a threshold of 3% for the first time since 2009.
The move comes as China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, has ramped up military and political pressure over the past five years to assert those claims, which Taipei strongly rejects.
But Taiwan also faces calls from Washington to spend more on its own defence, mirroring pressure from the United States on Europe. This month, President Lai Ching-te said he wanted to boost defence spending to more than 3% of GDP next year.
The budget includes funding for the coast guard, veterans and special projects, the agency added. It did not say what the meant in terms of a percentage increase over this year’s defence spending.
Taiwan was including spending for the coast guard in its total defence budget for the first time, two senior officials briefed on the matter told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“They are standing on the frontline,” said one, referring to the coast guard, which figures in regular stand-offs with China’s coast guard and would, in time of war, be pressed into the navy’s effort to defend Taiwan.
The cabinet will hold a press conference later on Thursday to announce budget details.
Taiwan’s government has made military modernisation a key policy platform and has repeatedly pledged to spend more on its defences given the rising threat from China, including developing made-in-Taiwan submarines.
China’s air force flies almost daily missions into the skies near Taiwan, and holds periodic war games, the last in April.
China is also rapidly modernising its armed forces, with new aircraft carriers, stealth fighter jets and missiles.
In March China unveiled a rise of 7.2% in this year’s defence spending, to 1.78 trillion yuan ($248.17 billion), outpacing its 2025 economic growth target of about 5%.
($1=30.3650 Taiwan dollars)
($1=7.1724 Chinese yuan)
(Reporting by Yimou Lee and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Clarence Fernandez)
