Taiwan will jointly manufacture a missile and an underwater drone with a US company for the first time, officials said Thursday, as Taipei seeks to boost domestic weapons and ammunition production.

The democratic island faces the constant threat of an invasion by China, which claims it is part of its territory, and is under US pressure to spend more on its own defence.

Taiwan's National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST) agreed earlier this year with US defence firm Anduril to jointly make the company's Barracuda-500, a low-cost, autonomous cruise missile.

On Thursday, NCSIST and Anduril signed another agreement to co-produce the company's underwater drone.

These are Taiwan's first such agreements with a foreign company, NCSIST president Li Shih-chiang told AFP.

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