Why has reference to Taiwan attending Rimpac been removed from US defence bill?

A proposal to invite Taiwan to next year’s US-led Rim of the Pacific (Rimpac) military exercises has been removed from defence policy legislation progressing through Congress, raising concerns in Taipei that Washington’s political calculus may be shifting.

Some analysts have warned that the removal of language approved by the US Senate in the 2026 National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA) could even pave the way for Beijing’s return to the world’s largest naval exercise.

For the first time, the version of the defence policy bill for the next financial year passed by the Senate in October “strongly encouraged” inviting Taiwan’s navy to take part in Rimpac.

The wording vanished during final negotiations in Congress last week – despite the strengthening of other Taiwan-related security provisions. There was no other change when the House passed the compromise version on Wednesday.

While the foreign ministry in Taipei stressed that military cooperation with the US continued to deepen in quality and scale, analysts said the omission revived long-standing anxieties over the limits of US support – particularly on highly visible multilateral platforms that Beijing seeks to block.

“This deserves very close attention,” said Chieh Chung, an assistant professor of international relations and strategic studies at Tamkang University in New Taipei City, who suspects the removal was pushed by the White House.

  

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