The indigenous submarine program has drawn on expertise and technology from several countries — a breakthrough for diplomatically isolated Taiwan.

Taiwan unveiled its first domestically developed submarine on Thursday, a major step in a project aimed at strengthening the island’s defense and deterrence against the Chinese navy, though it won’t enter service for another two years.

Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, has made the indigenous submarine program a key part of an ambitious project to modernize its armed forces as Beijing stages almost daily military exercises to assert its sovereignty.

President Tsai Ing-wen, who initiated the plan when she took office in 2016, showed off the first of eight new submarines on Thursday in the southern city of Kaohsiung.

“In the past, a domestically developed submarine was considered an impossible task. But, today, a submarine designed and manufactured by our country’s people sits before our eyes,” Tsai said, adding that it would play an important role in strengthening the navy’s “asymmetric warfare” capabilities.