Taiwan passes delayed $93bn defence budget, retains drone funding

Taiwan's parliament has approved the government's annual budget after a record 266-day delay, preserving funding for a drone programme that is central to the island's defence planning. The vote came late on Friday in the opposition-controlled legislature, ending a deadlock that had forced the administration to rely on a provisional budget mechanism. The approved package totals $93bn and was passed after lawmakers missed the legal deadline.

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The drone funding survived after the main opposition Kuomintang dropped an earlier proposal to cut it by 70 percent. The party said it had concluded there was no wasteful overlap between the development and procurement programmes it had initially cited as justification for the reduction. Other approved reductions included a 60 percent cut to special allowances for government agency heads, a 2.5 percent cut to military equipment and facilities spending, and a 50 percent cut to media policy and publicity budgets.

Before the vote, the government had been using the provisional mechanism to keep paying civil servants and funding welfare programmes. Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu said after the vote that the prolonged delay had caused "social division and a constitutional impasse". President William Lai Ching-te said parliamentary oversight and review of the budget are an important constitutional duty, reflecting the continuing tension between his administration and opposition parties after it lost its parliamentary majority in 2024.

The budget decision matters because Taiwan is trying to strengthen its defences amid rising cross-strait tensions with Beijing. The island's military currently has fewer than 5,000 drones, while China is reported to have ordered close to a million for delivery this year, part of a wider regional build-up. Taiwan's leaders have increasingly treated drones as a key part of future defence planning, especially as the island faces sustained military pressure from China.

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The vote also follows earlier disputes over defence spending. In May, the same opposition-controlled legislature cut a proposed $40bn special defence budget by 38 percent, removing all funding for domestically produced combat drones while leaving only United States arms purchases intact. That earlier decision underlined how budget battles in the legislature have become tied to broader arguments over Taiwan's security priorities and the pace of military modernisation.

The latest approval suggests some compromise was reached, even if major disagreements remain. What remains unclear is how quickly the retained drone funding will be translated into procurement and development plans, and whether future budget rounds will trigger similar clashes. The government and opposition camps are still divided over spending, oversight and the scale of defence investment.

For now, the passage of the annual budget removes one immediate source of uncertainty, but the wider political dispute over Taiwan's security posture is still unresolved.

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