Taiwan says four more U.S. weapons packages still awaiting congressional notice

Taiwan’s deputy minister of national defence, Hsu Szu-chien, told reporters in Taipei that four additional U.S. arms-sale packages remain to be formally notified to the U.S. Congress, a procedural step required for foreign military sales. Hsu declined to identify the packages, citing legal limits on what Taipei can reveal before Washington has completed its notifications.

“Don’t ask me what four these are, I cannot say, but there are still four cases yet to be notified to Congress,” Hsu said after a weekly cabinet meeting, adding he could not provide further detail “for legal reasons.” He cited domestic and U.S. legal constraints that prevent Taiwan from publicly naming individual procurement packages until the U.S. government has officially announced them, referring to protections such as the Classified National Security Information Protection Act and relevant U.S. security assistance regulations.

The announcement follows a Dec. 17 notification by the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency that listed an approximately US$11.1 billion package covering eight items, including Lockheed Martin HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems and Altius loitering munition drones. Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense has already made five procurement items public: M109A7 self-propelled howitzers, HIMARS, Altius anti-armor loitering munitions, Javelin anti-armor missiles, and TOW 2B anti-armor missiles.

Hsu said the ministry has expedited an internal review for the four additional packages that have not yet appeared in U.S. congressional notifications. Defence Minister Wellington Koo is scheduled to give a confidential briefing to lawmakers to explain the government’s plans and the contents of a special defence budget unveiled in November by President Lai Ching-te.

That special budget totals NT$1.25 trillion through 2033, about US$39.6 billion, and Hsu said roughly NT$900 billion of it is reserved for procurement from the United States while NT$300 billion is earmarked for domestically produced systems. The allocation is central to an intensifying domestic debate over Taipei’s approach to building deterrence and supporting an emergent defence industrial base.

Opposition figures have challenged the level of detail provided to legislators. Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Huang Kuo-chang has argued the special budget lacks sufficient transparency and suggested that a high proportion of the funds are not intended for U.S. arms procurement. Hsu rejected that characterization and said the ministry would provide further confidential briefings to address lawmakers’ concerns.

The pending notifications also carry regional implications. China staged military exercises around Taiwan in late December after the latest U.S. announcements, underscoring the potential for arms transfers to affect cross-strait tensions. The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside Washington business hours.

The immediate questions for journalists and policymakers are when the U.S. will formally notify Congress regarding the four remaining packages and what their contents will reveal about Taipei’s balancing of foreign procurement and domestic defence production. The planned confidential briefings and any subsequent U.S. notifications will be watched closely for signals about the scale and timing of Taipei’s rearmament efforts.