Taiwanese officials are hoping that the newly elected French socialist Government will approve the possible sale of a follow-on batch of 60 Dassault Mirage 2000-5 fighters.
According to Taiwan's China Times newspaper, Taiwanese minister without portfolio Tsai Cheng-wen says that Paris is considering a planned new deal to sell Taipei another 60 Mirage 2000-5s. Tsai's comments were made after returning from a visit to France.
Taiwan believes that the election of a new left-wing French Government led by prime minister Lionel Jospin will result in a much more open policy on arms sales to the island. It was under the previous socialist administration of ex-president François Mitterand that the original 1992 sale of 60 Mirage 2000-5s was approved .
Right-wing president Jacques Chirac has since assured China that no more French arms would be sold to Taiwan. Paris, as a result, recently refused to endorse the sale of Matra Mistral surface-to-air missiles to Taiwan. Observers suggest that it is unlikely to reverse this policy, particularly in the wake of French-based Airbus Industrie having sold 60 A320/321s to China since the middle of 1996.
Taiwan, in the meantime, has begun to take delivery of its initial Mirage 2000-5 fighters. The first squadron of aircraft is scheduled to be commissioned in November, at which point Taiwan will retire its last 16 Lockheed Martin F-104s, says air force commander-in-chief Gen Huang Hsien-jung.
Huang adds that the air force's eight RF-104Gs will be phased out from August, with the redelivery of the first of eight modified Northrop Grumman RF-5E Tigereye reconnaissance aircraft.
Source: Flight International
