The Biden administration has approved funding for the first-ever transfer of US military equipment to Taiwan under a program typically saved for sovereign nations, according to a notification sent to Congress on Tuesday.

The package – which is part of the State Department’s foreign military financing (FMF) program – totals $80 million and will be paid for by US taxpayers.

“FMF will be used to strengthen Taiwan’s self-defense capabilities through joint and combined defense capability and enhanced maritime domain awareness and maritime security capability,” the department wrote in its notification to Congress that was reviewed by CNN.

  • Giddy@aussie.zone
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    1 year ago

    The money spent in Ukraine is money well spent. They have hugely damaged a major belligerent power, forever destroyed the myth of Russian strength, unified Europe and NATO and learned much about Russian military capabilities all while using last generation western hardware

    • SupraMario@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It’s also not just cash, most of the money is from arms we had basically laying around. It’s not like we wrote them a check and handed it over.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Oh absolutely. I’m not saying it shouldn’t have been spent. I’m saying this is a drop in the bucket in comparison before anyone gets worked up about it.

    • Candelestine@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Forever destroyed the myth of Russian strength? That’s funny. If that were going to happen, it’d have happened after the Winter War. Or maybe the Russo-Japanese War.

      In a world where people don’t all learn the same things, a myth of military strength is very easy to build from nothing. Just takes some consistent propaganda over time.