Taipei Times
Date: Jun 03, 2016
By: William Lowther / Staff reporter in WASHINGTON

The US Senate is next week to debate a US$574.5 billion defense spending bill that calls for improved military relations with Taiwan.
US Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain is in Taipei this week and is expected to support the provisions on Taiwan.

If the provisions pass and the bill is ratified, it would constitute the most significant congressional upgrade to US-Taiwan relations since the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), senior fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Center Rick Fisher told the Taipei Times.

The bill calls on the Pentagon to improve military relations with Taiwan by starting a program that would exchange senior military officers and officials on a regular basis.

According to the bill — if passed by the committee — the exchange officers and officials would focus on threat analysis, military doctrine, force planning, logistical support and intelligence collection and analysis.     [FULL  STORY]