Taipei: The Cabinet’s planned special defense budgets totaling NT$117.6 billion (US$3.85 billion) anticipate the Trump administration approving more arms sale packages to Taiwan next year as a workaround given a limited general budget increase, experts said Thursday. The Cabinet earlier in the day approved the general budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2026, under which the national defense spending plan accounts for NT$949.5 billion, equivalent to 3.32 percent of Taiwan’s GDP.

According to Focus Taiwan, the spending plan includes “to-be-earmarked” special budgets of NT$117.6 billion, which comprises three special budgets. According to Hsu Yung-yi, an official from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, the amount includes a NT$7.6 billion budget proposed by the Coast Guard Administration, with a Homeland Security Resilience Special Budget and Foreign Military Sales Special Budget making up the rest. However, Hsu declined to comment on the specifics of the special budgets, which are still being reviewed by the Cabinet.

Su Tzu-yun, a research fellow at the government-run Institute for National Defense and Security Research, explained that the Ministry of National Defense’s budget increase is limited by the general budget increase. Consequently, to meet arms procurement needs, it is only natural that special budgets are planned. The special budgets could fund the production of the seven planned indigenous defense submarines and the procurement of drones from the United States and local manufacturers, as well as locally developed unmanned surface vessels, Su said.

In addition, the special budgets are likely to also include funds to purchase E-2D airborne early warning aircraft and M109A7 self-propelled howitzers from the U.S., he added. Su expressed hope that any forthcoming special defense budget will place an emphasis on purchasing locally developed weapons, just like the 2021-2026 Sea-Air Combat Power Improvement Plan, to drive local economic growth.