Postponing US military support to Taiwan – Mehr News Agency | RCO News Agency

According to the Mehr news agency, the New York Times quoted American officials and wrote: The administration of US President Donald Trump has postponed the sale of weapons to Taiwan so as not to displease Xi Jinping before his visit to Beijing in April.

Top Republican and Democratic lawmakers approved the package after the State Department sent it to them for informal review in January.

However, the arms aid package to Taiwan has been stalled by the US State Department since then.

An American official told the New York Times that the total value of this arms aid package is about 13 billion dollars.

Trump and Xi Jinping are planning to meet in Beijing this spring; The meeting will be their first face-to-face meeting since their conversation last October in Busan, South Korea. They agreed in Busan on a one-year ceasefire in the trade war that Trump had started.

Trump told reporters on February 16 that he was considering the issue, given Xi’s opposition to arms sales to Taiwan.

Normally, the US State Department sends arms sales proposals to a committee in the Senate and a committee in the House of Representatives for review by senior lawmakers from both parties. If these lawmakers give informal approval, the State Department usually announces the sale publicly shortly thereafter, and then the package is sent to Congress for formal approval.