Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/12/09
By: Rita Cheng and Lilian Wu

Washington, Dec. 8 (CNA) The U.S. Congress on Thursday passed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 2017, which included for the first time a section on senior military exchanges with Taiwan.

The Senate voted 92-7 to pass the bill Thursday, after it was voted through the House of Representatives 375-34 on Dec. 2.

Section 1284 of the final version passed after coordination between the House and the Senate states: “It is the sense of Congress that the Secretary of Defense should conduct a program of senior military exchanges between the United States and Taiwan that have the objective of improving military-to-military relations and defense cooperation between the United States and Taiwan.”

Such a program should be conducted at least once each calendar year in both the United States and Taiwan, according to the act.    [FULL  STORY]