Taiwan's defence minister says any move of Taipei's Songshan airport must not weaken the military

Taiwan's Defence Minister Wellington Koo said on Monday that Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an's proposal to relocate Taipei Songshan Airport, which serves both civilian airlines and the air force, needs a comprehensive assessment by central and local government authorities. He said the Ministry of National Defense would offer its professional advice in any such review to make sure Taiwan's overall defence capability is not affected.

Koo spoke to reporters at the Legislative Yuan before briefing its Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee on the retention of air force pilots. Asked whether moving the airport would affect transport for the head of state or air force deployments in northern Taiwan, he did not answer directly. Pressed to spell out the ministry's position, he repeated that the matter required careful evaluation and that the ministry would put forward its professional views if an assessment went ahead. He declined to say whether he supported or opposed the move.

The legislature's defence committee has asked the ministry for a report on the proposed relocation and on the expansion of Taichung International Airport, Taiwan News reported. The Ministry of Transportation and Communications has described Songshan as a transport hub and a base for defence and disaster relief operations, while Health Minister Shih Chung-liang has noted that emergency medical flights from outlying islands and remote areas often use the airport.

Air base inside the city

The airport houses the air force's Songshan Air Base Command, and reporters questioning Koo focused on its transport role as well as civil aviation. Chiang, who is seeking re-election in November, has proposed turning the roughly 300-hectare site into an artificial intelligence park with technology clusters, public parkland and housing.

Speaking at a cultural festival event on Monday afternoon, Chiang said that, in light of new forms of warfare, the deployment of national defence forces could be rethought, including the military use of the airport. He said helicopter medical evacuation would be kept, that options for patient routing were being studied and that passenger capacity for island residents would be properly transferred. His pledge, he said, was that defence needs would not be cut, medical evacuation would not be interrupted and island residents would not lose out.

Chiang also said he had recommended the Songnan military camp on the airport's southern edge to Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang last year, when the chipmaker was looking for land near the city centre for an overseas headquarters. The city government had formally asked the defence ministry to hand that land back by the end of last year, he said, and plans to open the site to investors next year after a feasibility study now under way.

Election fight

Puma Shen, the Democratic Progressive Party's candidate for Taipei mayor, has argued that military use, medical evacuation and outlying-island needs must be weighed, and that unveiling the plan some 50 days before the vote without prior coordination was hasty. DPP legislator Chuang Jui-hsiung called it an ambush. Chiang rejected that, saying the idea had been planned for a long time.

Former minister without portfolio Chang Ching-sen has backed moving the airport but opposed turning the site into an AI park, saying that national security and medical concerns were valid but should not stop the government from planning for them, Taiwan News reported.