Lai urges cross-party backing for drone procurement bill

Taipei, July 24 (CNA) President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) on Friday reiterated that peace depends on the strength to deter aggression and urged lawmakers across party lines to back his administration's drone procurement bill as he officiated at the commissioning of a Navy corvette in Kaohsiung.

Lai made the remarks while presiding over the commissioning of the ROCS Tan Chiang, a stealth missile corvette, at Kaohsiung's Zuoying Naval Base, where the vessel was berthed. The vessel is the seventh domestically built Tuo Chiang-class missile corvette to enter service since the class of catamaran warships entered serial production.

"We all know well that peace is priceless and there are no winners in war," Lai said. "But peace does not come through a peace agreement, and it definitely does not come through the goodwill of an aggressor or by accepting the aggressor's demands."

Lai said the commissioning marked Taiwan's achievement of its goal of building warships domestically and embodied the principle of "peace through strength."

Turning to competing bills under review in the Legislative Yuan to fund the procurement of domestically developed and manufactured drones, Lai urged opposition parties, which hold a majority in the Legislature, to support the Cabinet's proposal to allocate NT$210 billion (US$6.49 billion) over six fiscal years.

The Cabinet proposal, backed by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), would fund the procurement through a special budget and designate the Ministry of National Defense (MND) as the competent authority.

The proposal would cover the procurement of 1,446 coastal reconnaissance drones, 208,200 coastal attack drones and 1,320 unmanned surface vessels.

"The Ministry of National Defense is the requesting agency. [The procurement] must not be delegated to other agencies," Lai said at the commissioning ceremony.

The DPP argues that using a special budget would provide stable funding, allowing the ministry to place large, long-term orders with domestic defense companies while supporting continued innovation to keep pace with rapidly evolving drone technology.

The opposition Kuomintang (KMT) and Taiwan People's Party (TPP), however, favor funding the procurement through the annual general budget, arguing that doing so would promote fiscal discipline and reduce the risk of corruption.

The opposition parties have also proposed designating the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), rather than the MND, as the competent authority. They argue that responsibilities such as supporting drone manufacturers, importing key technologies, conducting cybersecurity reviews and planning drone testing sites fall within the MOEA's remit.