(Bloomberg) -- A US governor keen to build a drone hub in his state is poised to bring a delegation of industry executives to Taiwan — a sign of growing cooperation between the two sides in the technology.
The group led by Oklahoma’s Kevin Stitt is set to arrive Sunday for the five-day visit, according to an itinerary seen by Bloomberg News. They’ll meet with Taiwanese regulators and executives from local companies, and also tour a government-backed R&D center.
The visitors aim to find component suppliers in Taiwan, according to people familiar with the matter who didn’t want to be identified discussing the sensitive issue, and drone companies considering making investments are part of the American delegation. Earlier this year, Oklahoma got $51 million in Federal funds for a hub in Tulsa that’ll focus on tech including drones.
The visit comes just as a separate delegation organized by the US government to foster drone industry ties with Taiwan wraps up a trip. Taiwan’s military has been seeking to expand its drone capabilities to counter China, which wants to bring the democracy of 23 million people under its control someday, by force if necessary. The group also included US defense officials, according to media reports.
Taiwan Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung said in a Facebook post that he met with some members of the delegation, calling it “a rare opportunity.”
“Hopefully this can promote Taiwan-US cooperation in drones, building a safer and more resilient supply chain and contributing to peace and stability of Indo-Pacific.”
And next month executives from some major Taiwan drone firms are scheduled to visit the US, Chou Yu-hsin, deputy director-general of Industrial Development Administration under the Economics Ministry, said in an interview on Wednesday.
Taiwan’s military has studied Ukraine’s tactics in its war with Russia, which have included using relatively cheap drones to destroy larger, more expensive equipment like tanks.
Also, US lawmakers have repeatedly warned about the security threats posed by Chinese drones, a worry that could lead to a ban on some devices made in the Asian nation.
Earlier this month, the House voted to prohibit some SZ DJI Technology Co. devices from flying in the US. The bill would need to be passed by the Senate and signed by the president to become law.
(Updates with details of current delegation to Taiwan. An earlier version of this story was corrected to show that the Taiwan official clarified his comments to say that executives will visit the US but haven’t finalized their itinerary.)
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