Taiwan: “Congress’s support is bipartisan” – the $14 billion arms package sits in Trump’s drawer

Taipei is looking to the new Congress for the US weapons it is waiting for. After the Democrats’ victory in both chambers in the midterm elections of Tuesday, November 3, Taiwan’s Defence Minister Wellington Koo assured on Thursday, November 5 that Congress’s support for his country remains bipartisan. At the same time, a package of weapon systems worth about $14 billion remains in the drawer, since Donald Trump has called it a bargaining chip against Beijing.

Koo spoke to reporters at the Legislative Yuan, where he went for the debate on the 2026 supplementary budget. Asked whether the new majority in Washington changes anything for the $14 billion package, he answered: “The US Congress firmly and in a bipartisan way supports Taiwan’s efforts to strengthen its defence capabilities.” He added that his ministry will continue to talk with members of Congress and will be in close contact with the US Department of War, “so that the relevant arms sales proceed as planned”.

“A very good bargaining chip”

Last December Trump approved arms sales worth $11 billion to Taiwan, the largest arms sale to Taiwan ever made. The second package, however, has frozen, and after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in May Trump called it a bargaining chip. In an interview broadcast on May 15 on Fox News, the US president said he is considering whether to approve it: “I have it pending and it depends on China. Frankly, it is a very good bargaining chip for us. It is a lot of weapons.”

The delay has already provoked reactions on Capitol Hill. In September four Republicans asked the administration to release more than $15 billion of frozen security assistance for Taiwan, including the $14 billion package, before Xi’s visit to Washington. The Democrats will control both chambers from January, when the new session of Congress begins.

Trump is expected to meet Xi at least two more times before the end of the year, at the APEC summit in China in November and at the G20 summit in Florida in December. Officials in Taipei do not rule out the package being moved to 2027. Ronan Fu, a researcher at Academia Sinica, Taiwan’s top state research institution, estimates that when sales resume, perhaps within 2027, they may be split into smaller packages, with the total amount staying about the same.

Taiwan’s foreign ministry: a “bipartisan approach”

Taiwan’s foreign ministry moved along the same lines. Its spokesman, Hsiao Kuang-wei, said on Wednesday, November 4 that Taipei consistently follows a bipartisan policy towards the US and cultivates friendly relations across the political spectrum, which he said has the support of lawmakers and senators of both parties, as well as of the US executive branch. The ministry will continue to deepen cooperation with Washington in security, trade, technology and education, and will make sure members of Congress and local governments give priority to relations between the two sides.

In Washington, David Sacks, senior fellow for Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), assesses that one result of the elections may be that Republicans too begin to diverge from Trump and press the administration to approve the sales. He said Congress could also try to enshrine in law the “Six Assurances” the Reagan administration gave Taipei in 1982, one of which provides that the US will not set an end date for arms sales to Taiwan.

The developments come amid intense Chinese pressure around the island, with Taipei alleging that China has deployed more than 100 warships and coast guard vessels in the Western Pacific, and with a live-fire drill on Kinmen.