The U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee on Monday filed its draft of an annual defense policy bill, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which includes provisions to strengthen defense-related engagement with Taiwan.

The draft legislation, which the committee approved in a bipartisan 23-3 vote on June 16, would authorize US$847 billion for military and national defense programs at the departments of defense and energy, and will now be debated by the full Senate at a later date.

As relates to Taiwan, the bill mandates that within 180 days of its enactment, the U.S. secretaries of defense and state, together with the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), must seek to engage with Taiwan officials to develop a multiyear plan to facilitate Taiwan’s acquisition of defense capabilities, as well as to collaborate on a series of combined training exercises and planning activities.

Specifically, the bill states that the plan should include an evaluation of Taiwan’s defense capability gaps and capacity shortfalls and an assessment of how to address them, as well as opportunities to build interoperability, combined readiness, and joint-planning capabilities between the United States, Taiwan, and other foreign partners.

While the U.S. House of Representatives passed its own version of the 2023 NDAA in a 329-101 vote on July 15, the Senate is not expected to begin debating its draft of the legislation until September.

Typically, both chambers of Congress would then negotiate a reconciliation of the bill before sending it to the president to sign into law.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel