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AIT’s Raymond Burghardt reassures on
arms sales
By Vincent Y. Chao and Shih Hsiu-chuan / Staff Reporters
Democratic Progressive Party
Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen, right, shakes hands with American Institute in Taiwan
Chairman Raymond Burghardt yesterday.
Photo: CNA
American Institute in Taiwan (AIT)
Chairman Raymond Burghardt yesterday said US arms sales to Taiwan would
continue, but he remained noncommittal on the 66 F-16C/Ds requested by Taipei.
Burghardt, who is in the country on a five-day visit, said that while “arms
sales will continue,” the highly anticipated fighter aircraft sale was “an old
subject.”
“It always comes up in all discussions here,” he told the Taipei Times. “I would
say the same I said the last time I was here: It is an issue that we continue to
consider.”
Burghardt did not directly comment on questions about remarks by President Ma
Ying-jeou (馬英九) that the US had been unwilling to accept any preliminary
discussions on the sale of F-16C/Ds.
The two are expected to meet today, with the arms package that both Taiwanese
politicians and US lawmakers have lobbied for expected to be on the agenda.
Taiwan submitted three letters of request for the F-16C/Ds between 2006 and
2007, but the US government has reportedly refused to handle the appeals.
Burghardt said he “didn’t come this time with any kind of special message from
Washington.”
“And I’m not coming to brief on any recent meeting we had with our friends in
mainland China,” he told an afternoon meeting with Democratic Progressive Party
(DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文). “I’m here to listen, here to exchange
views about relations between the US and Taiwan.”
“We had a good talk. I always enjoy talking with my friend Dr Tsai,” Burghardt
said after the talks. “We talked about the election and also issues about US
relations with Taiwan ... Today was a very pleasant, very good-humored
conversation.”
Speaking on the presidential and legislative elections, Burghardt said AIT had
“high respect for the fact that Taiwan has a real democracy,” adding that
despite following the election closely, “we stay neutral.”
Following his meeting with Tsai, Burghardt met Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng
(王金平) for about an hour, and then spoke with reporters.
Asked about the US probe into the death of Wu Lai-yu (吳來于), a Taiwanese captain
of the hijacked fishing vessel Jih Chun Tsai No. 68, in a gunfight between the
US Navy and Somali pirates, Burghardt said” “I am not here to talk about the
subject.”
“I was here to see the president, to talk about the coming election and to talk
about the whole range of issues of US-Taiwan relations. The subject is something
the military is investigating. I am not here to talk about the issue,” he said.
Asked to comment on ideas floated to revise the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA),
Burghardt said: “The TRA has done very well since 1979 and no one has any plan
to change it.”
As for the long delay in the resumption of talks on the Trade and Investment
Framework Agreement, Wang said Burghardt had explained “unequivocally” that the
matter was dragged down because of Taiwan’s ban on US beef products containing
ractopamine.
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