President Ma eyes closer Taiwan-US ties

2015/05/22

President Ma Ying-jeou said May 20 that enhanced collaboration between Taiwan and the U.S. plays a key role in promoting stability in the Asia-Pacific.

“Exchanges between Taipei and Washington have grown steadily during the past seven years, and now stand at their highest level since the Taiwan Relations Act took effect 36 years ago,” Ma said. “The government will continue working with the U.S. across the board to ensure regional peace and prosperity in the interests of both sides.”

Ma made the remarks while receiving a delegation of U.S. foreign relations experts and researchers at the Presidential Office in Taipei City. The group is led by Jon M. Huntsman Jr., chairman of Washington-based think tank Atlantic Council.

According to the president, bilateral ties are on the up and up, as evidenced by numerous visits of senior officials from the two sides since last year.

These include Gina McCarthy, administrator of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Kurt Tong, principal deputy assistant secretary for the Department of State’s Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs; and Holly Vineyard, deputy assistant secretary of commerce for Asia in the U.S. International Trade Administration. Minister of Economic Affairs Deng Chen-chung visited Washington in February, the first top ROC economics official to do so since 2004.

Concerning security, Ma said the US$18.3 billion in arms sales from Washington since he took office in May 2008 is another prime example of strong U.S. commitment to Taiwan.

This healthy state of affairs extends to economic and trade relations, with Taipei and Washington back at the negotiating table under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement. Concluding a bilateral investment agreement and smoothing Taiwan’s path to participating in regional trade blocs like the Trans-Pacific Partnership are two of the government’s top priorities, according to the president.

As for cross-strait relations, Ma said Taipei and Beijing are on their most peaceful and stable terms in 66 years, with more than 14 million visits by mainland Chinese to Taiwan in the past seven years. “In particular, the three meetings between former Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chi and his Beijing counterpart Zhang Zhijun marked a milestone development in cross-strait ties.”

The president reaffirmed the importance of the 1992 consensus in steering the development of future cross-strait relations, adding that the government’s mainland China policy should be continued after he concludes his second and final term in office next year.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=230637&ctNode=413)