Washington, July 27 (CNA) The United States Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly passed its version of the annual defense bill that lays out the country’s sweeping national defense policy and budget for 2024, including provisions calling for military cooperation with Taiwan.
The Senate approved the US$886 billion budget for the 2024 fiscal year under the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), with an 86-11 vote after the Senate Committee on Armed Services passed draft legislation in June.
According to the committee, more than 900 amendments were considered, and 121 of them were adopted during the floor debate — the most adopted to the Senate NDAA in years.
In a statement, the committee said the Taiwan provisions aim to establish “a comprehensive training, advising, and institutional capacity-building program for the military forces of Taiwan.”
The Senate 2024 NDAA also authorizes the full budget request for the Pacific Deterrence Initiative and the European Deterrence Initiative, the committee said.
According to the newly approved bill, the comprehensive program aims to enable a layered defense of Taiwan by the Taiwanese military forces, including in support of “the use of an asymmetric defense strategy,” and to enhance interoperability between the U.S. armed forces and their Taiwan counterparts.
The Act also calls for the commander of the U.S. Cyber Command and the commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command to engage with appropriate officials from Taiwan “for the purpose of expanding cooperation on military cybersecurity activities” to protect military networks infrastructure and systems and take on hostile cyber activities.
Through military cybersecurity cooperation, the legislation also urges both sides to leverage U.S. commercial and military cybersecurity technology and services to strengthen and defend such networks, infrastructure and systems.
According to the legislation, in no later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the U.S. Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State shall submit to the appropriate committees of Congress a report on the absorptive capacity of Taiwan’s military forces for military capabilities provided and approved by the U.S. for delivery to Taiwan in the last 10 years, including the date of projected or achieved initial and full operational capabilities.
In addition, the legislation stipulates in no later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of the Act, the U.S. secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the director of national intelligence, shall complete a comprehensive analysis of the risks and implications of a sustained military blockade of Taiwan by China.
“The Congress once again has an opportunity to send an unmistakable message to China and Russia that we are stalwart in our commitment to a ‘peace through strength’ agenda,” Republican Senator Roger Wicker said in the statement.
“I am hopeful that working alongside the House, we will send a bill to the president’s desk that puts our national defense on a path toward improving our deterrent capabilities,” Wicker said.
On July 15, the U.S. House of Representatives passed its own version of the 2024 NDAA with a 219-210 vote.
Typically, after the full House and Senate have passed their own versions of the NDAA, they negotiate a reconciliation of the bill to send to the president to sign into law before the end of the year.