By Carlos Garcia, Walid Berrazeg and Sarah Wu |
KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan (Reuters) -Taiwan unveiled its first domestically developed submarine on Thursday, a major step in a project aimed at strengthening the island’s defence and deterrence against the Chinese navy, though it won’t enter service for another two years.
Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, has made the indigenous submarine programme a key part of an ambitious project to modernise its armed forces as Beijing stages almost daily military exercises to assert its sovereignty.
President Tsai Ing-wen, who initiated the plan when she took office in 2016, showed off the first of eight new submarines on Thursday in the southern city of Kaohsiung.
“In the past, a domestically developed submarine was considered an impossible task. But, today, a submarine designed and manufactured by our country’s people sits before our eyes,” Tsai said, adding that it would play an important role in strengthening the navy’s “asymmetric warfare” capabilities.
“Even if there are risks, and no matter how many challenges there are, Taiwan must take this step and allow the self-reliant national defence policy to grow and flourish on our land,” Tsai said, standing in front of the ship, named the Narwhal. Taiwan’s red flag, featuring a white sun against a blue sky, was wrapped around the submarine’s bow.
Tsai said the Narwhal will enter service in 2025, joining two existing submarines purchased from the Netherlands in the 1980s.
China’s defence ministry, responding to a question at a regular monthly press briefing about the submarine and how it could prevent China surrounding the island, said Taiwan was “over-rating itself and attempting something impossible”.
“As for talk about preventing the People’s Liberation Army from entering the Pacific Ocean, this is idiotic nonsense,” spokesman Wu Qian told reporters in Beijing.
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