By Bongiwe Dlamini

MBABANE:Eswatini’s diplomatic ally-Taiwan has announced a $40billion defense budget amid China threat to take over the self-ruled Island.

Aljazeera reported on Wednesday that, Taiwanese President William Lai Ching-te announced the budget for defence spending over the next eight(8) years, to get “closer to the vision of an unassailable Taiwan, safeguarded by innovation and technology”.

Taiwan has been ramping up defence spending over the past decade but the United States President Donald Trump’s administration has pushed the self-ruled island to further increase its defence spending as a means to deter a potential Chinese attempt to regain control over the territory.

Lai said on Wednesday that the military aimed to have a “high level” of joint combat readiness against China by 2027-which US officials have previously cited as a possible timeline for a Chinese military operation on the island.

“The ultimate goal is to establish defence capabilities that can permanently safeguard democratic Taiwan,” Lai said at a news conference in Taipei after announcing the $40bn spending plan in an opinion piece in The Washington Post newspaper.

But Lai’s announcement came as Tokyo and Beijing were locked in a weeks-long diplomatic spat that followed remarks by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggesting Japan could intervene militarily in any attack on Taiwan.

China claims the island is part of its territory and has threatened to use force to regain control over it.

“The US’s top envoy in Taiwan, Raymond Greene, said he “welcomes” the government’s spending plan and urged the island’s rival political parties to “find common ground” on boosting its defences,” reads the Aljazeera report in part.