TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The U.S. is trying to balance the need to supply Ukrainian armed forces in their fight against Russia, while at the same time delivering much needed weapons purchased by Taiwan amid an ever increasing Chinese threat.

During a Monday (Nov. 28) press briefing at the White House, National Security Council Spokesman John Kirby was asked if the backlog of arms shipments to Taiwan were a result of increased efforts to send weapons to Ukraine.

“We are constantly balancing, as we must, our own inventories, the inventories of our allies and partners and people that we do conduct arms sales with, as well as, of course, the inventory that the Ukrainian armed forces need to fight Russian aggression,” Kirby replied.

Kirby said that when the president decides to draw down weapons stocks, he gets Pentagon assessments about how that affects U.S. readiness. “And we’re in constant touch with, again, allies and partners about their readiness needs, because many of them are reliant on U.S. systems. And of course, you know, that includes Taiwan,” he added.

The spokesman noted that President Biden in September had signed off on another US$1.1 billion (NT$34.1 billion) arms package to Taiwan. “But we take very seriously our responsibility to help provide Taiwan the self-defense capabilities that — that it needs. That’s in accordance with law and policy, and that’s not going to change,” Kirby said.

When pressed by the media as to when those shipments to Taiwan would actually take place and if there was a backlog, Kirby replied that he would not talk about inventory stocks of any system anywhere at a public podium. “We make sure that our readiness can be preserved, as well as the readiness of our allies and partners,” the spokesman said.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday (Nov. 27) that Taiwan has around US$19 billion in arms shipments currently on backlog in the U.S.