Taiwan proposes extra $4.6 billion in defence spending for this year

TAIPEI, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Taiwan's ‌cabinet on Thursday ​proposed ​an additional T$145.7 billion ($4.59 billion) in defence spending for this year for systems including drones and anti-ballistic missiles.

Taiwan's government has ‌made defence modernisation and increased spending a core policy given ⁠stepped up military pressure from China, which views the democratically governed island as its ‌own territory.

In May, Taiwan's opposition-controlled ‌parliament approved extra defence spending of $25 billion, about two-thirds of what the government had sought in a special budget, and only for ​spending on U.S. weapons, rather than also for domestic systems.

In a statement following a weekly meeting, the cabinet said, "there can be no ⁠gap in national defence", and plans originally sought under the previous special budget were now being ​incorporated into this year's new supplementary budget.

Systems to be bought will include a medium-tier, anti-tactical ballistic missile system, the ​cabinet said, which Taiwan's defence ministry has ‌previously said is the domestically developed Strong Bow missile.

Spending plans also incorporate more than 600 coastal surveillance and ⁠reconnaissance drones, over 40,000 coastal attack drones, and the first batch of over 100 small suicide drone boats, it added.

"National security cannot wait, the defence budget ⁠cannot wait, and defence self-reliance cannot wait either," the cabinet said.

Last month, parliament approved ​a six-year plan to spend $240 billion on drones, which in principle sets annual spending at $40 billion, and rejected a competing government plan for $210 billion.

For next year, the ‌government has proposed overall defence spending to top $1 trillion for the first time.

Taiwan, like U.S. allies in Europe ‌and elsewhere, faces calls from Washington to spend more on its own defence, ⁠something President Lai Ching-te has ‌enthusiastically embraced.

Lai rejects Beijing's ​sovereignty claims, saying only the island's people can decide their future.

($1 = 31.7470 Taiwan dollars)

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard: Editing by ‌Sharon Singleton)

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