Lisa Murkowski: “Senator Kyl and I have sponsored an amendment which would require the Secretary of Defense to study the issue of…”

“Senator Kyl and I have sponsored an amendment which would require the Secretary of Defense to study the issue of effective deployment of a theater missile defense system for the Asia-Pacific region. This is obviously needed to protect our troops in Okinawa and on the Korean peninsula. This amendment would further require that Korea, Japan and Taiwan be allowed to purchase such a system from the United States, should they desire. I suspect that all of them would be extremely interested in such a defense system, Mr. President, and I think it is incumbent upon us to extend this protection to them. A form of this legislation has already passed the House--albeit the House version was more specific in relating just to Taiwan. This legislation makes sense, is deeply needed, and would be a good show of support, meaningful support, to our allies in Korea, Japan and Taiwan. I thank the managers of the bill for agreeing to accept a scaled down version of this amendment. I had hoped that the entire version would have been eagerly accepted by colleagues on both sides of the aisle, but clearly there are other issues at play in the Senate at this time. I want the Record to reflect that this scaled down version in no way reflects a diminished commitment to Taiwan. Quite the contrary. This amendment should be seen as a victory--because it is.”