The government of USA announced today (29/7) a new package of military aid to Taiwanworth an estimated $345 million, which is expected to provoke an angry reaction from China.
The relevant announcement does not include details about the military equipment provided.
The US Congress had approved up to $1 billion in military aid to Taiwan in the 2023 budget.
Earlier this month, the head of the US National Defense Staff, General Mark Milley, said Washington and its allies should speed up arms deliveries to Taiwan to bolster the island’s defenses.. The US has remained for decades the largest arms supplier to Taiwan’s military, despite not having diplomatic relations with it.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken made a rare visit to Beijing in mid-June, during which the two sides remained steadfast in their positions on Taiwan, however expressing the hope that their communication will continue and the risk of tensions between them escalating into armed conflict will be avoided.
Beijing considers the island a Chinese province that will be reunited with the mainland at some point after the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, without ruling out the use of force to that end.
Last April, China held three-day military drills simulating a blockade of the island in response to a meeting between US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen in Los Angeles.
Kim Jong Un pledges closer cooperation with China
And while the US made its move, China received North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s commitment to develop bilateral relations to a historically high levelduring the meeting he had with the Chinese delegation that visited Pyongyang to attend the celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War, as reported by the North Korean News Agency (KCNA) today.
Yesterday Friday, Kim hosted a reception in honor of the Chinese delegation, which was headed by Li Hongzong, a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China’s Central Committee.
“The talks confirmed the intention of the governments of the two countries to deal with the complex international situation with their own initiatives and to gradually develop their friendship and friendly cooperation to a historically high level”KCNA reports.
The meeting followed Thursday’s large military parade in Pyongyang, which the North Korean leader attended along with high-ranking officials from China and Russia (the Russian delegation was headed by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu). New intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of carrying nuclear warheads, as well as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), were demonstrated during the parade.
Source: News Beast
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