President Ma Ying-jeou met on the afternoon of February 25 with a delegation of the German Bundestag parliamentary group formed by the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) and the Christian Social Union (CSU). In addition to recognizing the importance of the German experience as reference for Taiwan in handling cross-strait relations and the East China Sea dispute, the president also expressed hope for continued interaction and cooperation between the two nations.
In remarks, President Ma first expressed his congratulations to MP Mark Hauptmann and seven other delegation members for their recent electoral wins, adding that they are young and promising members of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group.
The president commented that while the ROC and Germany do not maintain formal diplomatic relations, they do have strong substantive ties. For instance, Germany and other European Union members have strongly supported Taiwan's participation in the World Health Organization and the International Civil Aviation Organization, he said. In addition, the president noted, Germany is Taiwan's largest trading partner in Europe and ninth largest trading partner globally. In the first 11 months of last year, bilateral trade reached US$14.5 billion, with bilateral trade for the year as a whole expected to surpass US$16 billion. This points to the extremely close economic and trade ties between the two sides, he remarked.
President Ma further noted that the two nations have already signed a number of important agreements, including the Agreement between Taiwan and Germany for the Avoidance of Double Taxation, the Arrangement on Cooperation between the Taiwan Customs Service and the German Customs Service to Combat Customs Fraud, and a convict transfer agreement between the two sides, which was signed on October 23, 2013. All of these have been conducive to forging cooperation between the two sides in a variety of areas, the president said.
President Ma stated that Germany in the 1970s handled relations between the two Germanys under the concept of "ein Deutschland – zwei Staaten." This, he said, provided considerable inspiration to Taiwan in promoting relations between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. The president noted that Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, which was set up to handle cross-strait relations, is modeled after the former West Germany's Federal Ministry for Intra-German Relations. He said that Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-Chi (王郁琦) led a delegation two weeks ago to mainland China to meet with his counterpart there, Minister Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council. This meeting was extremely significant in that it marked the first such meeting between the heads of the two agencies since the two sides came under separate rule 65 years ago, he remarked. The thinking that allowed this meeting to take place, noted President Ma, was also in line with the principle of separation of sovereignty and governing authority put forward in the Basic Treaty signed between the two Germanys in 1972.
Lastly, the president expressed hope that Taiwan and the European Union can sign a bilateral investment agreement soon in order to promote trade and economic relations. He also called for strengthened cooperation between Taiwan and Germany in the areas of culture and trade, thereby enhancing bilateral friendship.
Along with MP Hauptmann, the following members of the German Bundestag were also present at the meeting with President Ma: Nadine Schon, Marian Wendt, Andreas Nick, Carsten Korber, Albert Weiler, Martin Patzold, and Cemile Giousouf.