Defense Minister Yen De-fa says the government is planning to set up a mobilization office to better strengthen and coordinate Taiwan’s reserve forces. Yen was speaking Wednesday at the Legislature.
President Tsai Ing-wen has instructed the military to review its reserve forces and to push for reform so that reserve soldiers play a greater role and support active-duty service members.
Yen said that in order to build a formidable reserve force that can be “quickly mobilized and go to war right away”, training sessions for reservists will be conducted annually instead of once every two years. In addition, the length of the training sessions will be extended to two weeks.
Yen also said that the number of reservists subject to training will be increased from 120,000 to 260,000. The defense minister said that Taiwan’s national security hinges on its own defense capabilities.