(UPDATE) TAIPEI — Taiwan’s leader Lai Ching-te said on Friday that he hoped defense spending would reach 5 percent of the island’s gross domestic product (GDP) before 2030, raising a target of bolstering Taipei’s military budget that Washington has pushed for.

This comes a day after the government said next year’s defense budget would reach 3.32 percent of GDP, including spending on the coast guard for the first time, among other areas, to align with what Premier Cho Jung-tai said was the “NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) model.”

Taiwan's Lai ups defense spending target to 5% of GDP

The move comes as China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, has ramped up military and political pressure over the past five years to assert its claims, which Taipei strongly rejects.

But Taiwan also faces calls from Washington to spend more on its own defense, mirroring pressure from the United States on Europe.

Visiting a navy base on Taiwan’s northeastern coast, Lai said China’s threats had increased in recent years, and that he hoped defense spending by NATO standards could reach 5 percent of GDP before 2030.

“This not only demonstrates our country’s determination to safeguard national security and protect democracy, freedom and human rights,” he said in video images provided by his office.

“It also shows our willingness to stand shoulder to shoulder with the international community to jointly exert deterrent power and maintain peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region,” he added.

Lai also said the government would push for cooperation with “international allies” on weapons research and development, as well as for production, though he did not give details.

The US is Taiwan’s most important international arms supplier, despite a lack of formal diplomatic ties, but Taiwan’s own domestic weapons industry has built everything from fighter jets to cruise mis­si­les.

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