President Ma visits Pengjia Islet near Diaoyutai Islands

2016/04/11

ROC President Ma Ying-jeou visited Pengjia Islet near the Diaoyutai Islands April 9, unveiling a monument commemorating the third anniversary of the signing of the landmark Taiwan-Japan Fisheries Agreement.

“This monument serves as testament to the ROC government’s commitment to safeguarding sovereignty and promoting regional stability by turning the East China Sea, South China Sea and Taiwan Strait into three seas of peace,” Ma said.

Arriving on an S-70C helicopter in the afternoon, the president was joined at the ceremony by senior government officials, academics, and members of the media from home and abroad. He also met with ROC Coast Guard Administration personnel based on the islet and inspected a weather observation station and lighthouse. This was Ma’s second visit to Pengjia Islet following his first in September 2012.

Pengjia Islet is situated around 30 nautical miles north of Keelung City in northern Taiwan and 76 nautical miles west of the Diaoyutai Islands.

Ma said the East China Sea Peace Initiative he proposed in August 2012 and consequent fisheries agreement successfully resolved disputes between Taiwan and Japan over the past 40 years. “The agreement represents a significant achievement as it does not sacrifice sovereignty while greatly enhancing our fishing rights.”

Concluded April 10, 2013, the agreement is the first of its kind to be signed by the ROC with a neighboring country and is in the spirit of and accords with the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea. It protects and rights and interests of Taiwan fishermen operating in a 74,000-square-kilometer zone south of 27 degrees north latitude and north of Japan’s Yaeyama Islands and Miyako Islands.

According to the president, the East China Sea Peace Initiative is highly welcomed by the international community and lauded as an effective way of fostering regional peace. Its basic principle is that although sovereignty over national territory cannot be compromised, natural resources can be shared. All parties are encouraged to engage in discussions on the feasibility of joint development in the spirit of peace and cooperation.

Building on this success, Ma said he proposed the South China Sea Peace Initiative in May 2015 and urged interested parties to settle dispute through peaceful means. This saw the inking of an agreement on bilateral cooperation in fisheries law enforcement between Taiwan and the Philippines in November the same year.

In the same spirit, the president said his visit to Taiping Island in the South China Sea last month attracted widespread media attention and reaffirmed the government’s determination to continue developing Taiping Island into an island of peace and cooperation.

Situated 1,600 kilometers south of Kaohsiung City in southern Taiwan, Taiping Island is the largest naturally formed island of the Nansha (Spratly) Islands. The ROC maintains a permanent presence on Taiping Island and has developed it via government projects over the past decades.

Ma said starting with the Taiwan Strait, the government has worked progressively toward realizing its three seas of peace vision. “We are determined to ensure the people of Taiwan can live in a peaceful environment while at the same time safeguarding the nation’s territorial sovereignty.”

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=243699&ctNode=2194&mp=9)