Taiwan received a shipment of 38 M1A2T tanks from the United States, marking the first delivery of this type of armored vehicles in three decades. According to the state news agency CNAthe tanks arrived at the port of Taipei on Sunday and were transferred to a training center in the Taiwanese army in the county of Hsinchu.
The vehicles are part of an agreement approved in July 2019 during the administration of the former president donald trumpwho authorized the sale of 108 M1A2T tanks for a value of 2 billion dollars. This contract stood out as the third largest arms sale to Taiwan during the Republican leader’s term.
He Taiwan Ministry of National Defense detailed that deliveries will continue in the coming years, with 42 tanks additional planned for 2025 and another 28 in 2026. All vehicles will be assigned to the Sixth Army Commandin charge of the defense of the north of the island.
The M1A2T, a variant of the US Army’s M1 Abrams battle tank, is equipped with a 120 millimeters. This weapon can penetrate armor up to 850 millimeters thick and resist projectiles fired by most current tanks.
With these shipments, the US partially alleviates its delays in the delivery of weapons to Taiwan, motivated both by bureaucratic obstacles and by the excess demand of the US defense industry in the face of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
According to estimates of the Cato Institutea think tank based in Washington, the value of the weapons that have not yet arrived on the island amounted to $21.95 billionan amount that also includes 66 F-16V fighters and 100 Harpoon missile systems.
These delays coincide with the intensification of the Chinese regime’s military activities in the Strait, which has led the Taiwanese Government to propose an increase in the Defense budget to a “historic maximum” of 647,000 million Taiwan dollars (about 19,900 million dollars) by 2025.
The Chinese regime redoubled its threats against Taiwanafter the People’s Liberation Army (EPL) will declare on Friday that “will never be absent” in his fight against island independence.
This message came after a large military deployment by Beijing around Taiwan last week, which included warships, fighters and official ships, in a show of force that Taipei described as a attempted intimidation.
The spokesperson of the Chinese Ministry of Defense, Wu Qianstated in a press conference that the PLA’s mission is to “protect the national sovereignty and territorial integrity” of China, and warned that Any attempt at independence by Taiwan will be “punished” without success.
He military deployment The Chinese exercise was carried out without prior notice or details from Beijing, marking a difference compared to previous exercises in which the movements were announced.
The Taiwanese government interpreted these actions as a direct message after the recent international tour of the president of Taiwan, William Laiwho visited the island’s three diplomatic allies in the South Pacific –Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Palau – and made stops in Hawaii and GuamUS territories. These visits provoked a response from China, which considers Taiwan a rebellious province and has claimed its sovereignty since 1949.
Wu Qian justified the harassment actions against Taipei by saying that The Chinese armed forces will act according to “their needs and the situation on the ground.””. Furthermore, the spokesperson stressed that “just as water does not have a constant shape, in war there are no constant conditions either.”
A Taiwanese security official noted that China had begun planning these maneuvers in Octoberseeking to send a message to both Taiwan and the international community. According to this source, the exercises were intended to demonstrate that China has the ability to isolate Taiwan through a naval blockade and mark a “red line” for the next US administration.
(With information from EFE and AFP)
