U.S. Expands Training of Taiwanese Military with National Guard

The Wall Street Journal reported in October 2021 that a U.S. special operation unit and a contingent of Marines were training the Taiwanese military in Taiwan for at least a year, but the areas of training appear to have been limited.

"Increased training through a partnership between Taiwan's military and the U.S. National Guard is, if confirmed, a significant step and one that has been talked about in Washington for a while," said Jacob Stokes, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. "U.S. National Guard training would likely be focused on improving Taiwan's ability to leverage its reserve forces to greater effect in support of a whole-of-society military mobilization plan."

The Guard has played a key role in bolstering Ukrainian defense capabilities. The U.S. launched Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine after Russia unilaterally annexed Crimea, a part of Ukraine, in 2014. National Guard units were dispatched in rotation to a training facility in the western Ukrainian region of Lviv.

Read the full story and more from Nikkei Asia.