§3355 Multi-year plan to fulfill defensive requirements of military forces of Taiwan

Summary

Within 180 days after December 23, 2022, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State, working with the Director of National Intelligence, must set up a joint consultative group with Taiwan officials. The group must create and carry out a multi-year plan to help Taiwan get the right defensive equipment and to do combined training, exercises, and planning under the Taiwan Relations Act. The plan must name Taiwan’s defensive weaknesses and show how those gaps affect Taiwan’s ability to respond to aggression by the People’s Republic of China, to deny or stop an invasion, and to lower risks to the United States and Taiwan. It must say what Taiwan’s own priorities and yearly spending are to fix the gaps, explain why each gap matters, and say which gaps Taiwan can fix on its own and which it likely cannot. For gaps Taiwan cannot fix quickly, the plan must show which U.S. programs could help (for example, Foreign Military Financing, Foreign Military Sales, Direct Commercial Sales, certain Defense and State Department security and training authorities, transfers of excess defense articles, or other authorities). The plan must also describe cooperation with other countries, ways to build joint readiness and shared awareness through tabletop wargames, joint and logistics exercises, service-to-service training, and other combined activities, and options to speed up military aid in a crisis, including lists of possible items to transfer, authorities to use, delivery methods and challenges, and recommendations. The consultative group must meet at least once a year.