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On the morning of October 29 local time (early morning October 30 Taipei time) aboard the president's chartered aircraft en route to the Republic of the Marshall Islands, National Security Council Deputy Secretary-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) revealed President Tsai Ing-wen's itinerary during her just-concluded stopover in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Deputy Secretary-General Tsai stated that on the morning of October 28 local time President Tsai met over breakfast with friends from US political circles including American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Chairman James Moriarty, former AIT Chairman Raymond F. Burghardt, retired AIT officials, and Hawaii-based scholars and experts. It was a relaxed atmosphere, with friendly exchanges between the president and the other attendees.
Deputy Secretary-General Tsai said that after the breakfast meeting, President Tsai had a short meeting with Chairman Moriarty to exchange views on issues including regional security and Taiwan-US relations. Commenting on Taiwan's national defense strategy and development, Chairman Moriarty noted that the US is concerned about the steady increase in mainland China's defense spending over the past few years, and said the US hopes that Taiwan will give due consideration to the balance of military force in the Taiwan Strait. In response, President Tsai stated that Taiwan intends to increase its defense budget by 2% per year, and an extra 1% can be allocated for any additional arms purchases, so a 3% annual hike in defense spending is possible. If Taiwan makes a major arms purchase from abroad, it will also dip into a special budget to pay for it. At the same time, in drawing up plans for further development of national defense capabilities, Taiwan will adopt both short-term and long-term plans based on strategic needs to build up a fighting force that Taiwan can depend on.
