U.S. Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, Division Artillery, 1st Cavalry Division, fire a U.S. Army M109A7 Paladin Self-Propelled Howitzer during the Best By Test Competition in Adazi, Latvia, on Dec. 15, 2025. (U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Gabriel Martinez)
SINGAPORE — Taiwan’s parliament has approved a proposed government boost to defense spending after a protracted standoff — although it pared back the proposed supplementary budget by a third, and limited spending to US defense systems.
The 113-seat legislature, which is controlled by the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party, passed a $780 billion Taiwan Dollar ($25 billion) supplementary budget on Friday in a 59-0 vote with 48 lawmakers from Taiwanese President Lai Cheng-te’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) abstaining.
The approved supplemental budget is much lower than the NT$1.25 trillion proposed by the Lai administration, with the funding going towards two separate US arms packages for Taiwan.
The two arms packages include the $11 billion USD in arms sales cleared by the US State Department last December for M109A7 tracked howitzers, Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) ballistic missiles, as well as BGM-71 Tube-launched, Optically tracked, Wire-guided missiles and Javelin anti-tank guided missiles.
