Taiwan passes defence budget after record delay, retains drone funding

What the report says

Taiwan’s opposition-controlled legislature has approved the island’s annual budget, ending a prolonged standoff and keeping funding in place for a drone programme that officials view as central to Taiwan’s defence planning. Al Jazeera reported that lawmakers passed the budget late on Friday, after 266 days of political deadlock that pushed the process beyond its legal deadline.

The vote came as President William Lai Ching-te’s administration continues to face friction with opposition parties after losing its parliamentary majority in 2024. The approved spending package was set at $93bn and included funds for drone development, despite an earlier proposal by the main opposition Kuomintang to cut that allocation sharply. The party later withdrew the larger cut after saying it did not see wasteful duplication between the development and procurement plans it had questioned.

Other reductions were also adopted, including cuts to some government agency allowances, military equipment and facilities spending, and media policy budgets. Until the budget passed, Taiwan had been relying on a provisional mechanism to keep civil service pay and welfare programmes running.

The outcome matters because Taiwan faces sustained military pressure from Beijing, which claims the island as part of China. In a separate decision in May, the legislature had already reduced a proposed special defence budget and removed funding for domestically produced combat drones, making Friday’s vote a notable reversal for a programme tied to Taiwan’s wider security preparations.