Ex-Trump official applauds Lai's pledged defense spending hike

Taipei, Feb. 21 (CNA) Former U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor Matt Pottinger on Friday commended President Lai Ching-te's (賴清德) recent pledges to raise Taiwan's military spending, calling it an important signal of Taiwan's self-defense commitment.

At a security forum in Taipei, Pottinger, who served as U.S. deputy national security advisor from 2019 to 2021 during President Donald Trump's first presidency, spoke about Lai's recent repeated pledges to propose a special budget plan to increase Taiwan's defense spending to over 3 percent of GDP.

Lai made the pledges, along with commitments to double down efforts on defense reforms and enhance civil protections, shortly after Trump, speaking with reporters in Washington, accused Taiwan of "[taking] our chip business away" while again threatening tariffs on foreign semiconductors entering the U.S.

"It's really important as a signal to the United States and other countries about Taiwan's commitment to its defense," added Pottinger, who currently chairs the China Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

According to Pottinger, Lai's pledged special budget, if successful, would bring Taiwan's defense expenditure on par with the U.S.'s share of GDP.

Three percent "seems like a good bargain to me" considering Ukraine's current investment in its ongoing fights against Russian troops and the U.S.' at the peak of the Cold War in the 1980s, he added.

Joining Pottinger at the HFX Taipei's talk were former U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert, former Ukrainian parliamentarian Hanna Hopko, and Taiwanese lawmaker Fan Yun (范雲).

Taiwan's annual defense spending has hovered between 2 and 2.5 percent of GDP since former President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) took office in 2016, but it has yet to surpass 3 percent.

It remains to be seen whether Lai's pledged defense increase, which would likely see Taipei purchasing more defense articles from Washington, will materialize because his party, the DPP, does not have a majority in the Legislature and faces a strong backlash from the opposition.

For fiscal year 2025, the Cabinet initially earmarked NT$647 billion (US$19.76 billion) for the Ministry of National Defense, or 2.45 percent of Taiwan's GDP.

The final appropriation, however, is still uncertain after opposition lawmakers imposed several cuts and freezes at various stages of the budget review, some of which may have overlapped, leaving the executive branch to verify the final figures.