President Ma Ying-jeou met on the morning of November 27 with a delegation led by Republic of the Marshall Islands President Christopher J. Loeak and Mrs. Loeak, and the two heads of state bestowed honors on each other.
The honors conferral ceremonies were held at the Presidential Office Building at 11:00 a.m. President Ma awarded the Order of Brilliant Jade with Grand Cordon to President Loeak, while President Loeak reciprocated by awarding the Traditional Paramount Leader Medal, the highest honor of the Marshall Islands, to President Ma. Among those in attendance were Vice President Wu Den-yih, Secretary-General to the President Timothy Chin-Tien Yang (楊進添), Minister of Health and Welfare Chiang Been-huang (蔣丙煌), Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrew Jen-Chuan Kao (高振群), and ROC Ambassador to the Marshall Islands Winston Wen-yi Chen (陳文儀).
After the conclusion of the conferral ceremonies, President Ma made remarks, saying that the Marshall Islands have been ruled by a number of nations throughout history, including Portugal, Spain, Germany, and Japan. After World War II, the Republic of Marshall Islands formally declared independence in 1979. Tribal chiefs in the Marshall Islands have played an important role in the lengthy process of nation-building, and still bear responsibility for caring for and protecting the people. They are respected by all sectors of society, President Ma said.
President Ma noted that the Traditional Paramount Leader Medal given to him was produced using the finest traditional handicrafts techniques from the Marshall Islands, and First Lady Lieom Anono Loeak personally supervised the process. The medal was made from beautiful shells and other precious materials by the best artisans of that nation, he said. Former President Amata Kabua was the only previous person to receive this award and wore it in public, and President Ma commented this shows the importance that President Loeak places on the alliance between the two nations.
Meanwhile, President Loeak also delivered remarks and thanked President Ma for the award presented to him. He noted that the ROC and the Marshall Islands share the same core values and that the ROC has long been the best partner for the Marshall Islands, with the two maintaining close cooperation. President Loeak stated that the Marshall Islands will continue to speak on behalf of the ROC in international venues and support participation for the ROC in international organizations.
President Loeak also noted that the two countries maintain cooperation projects in the areas of farming and fishing, education and culture, health and medicine, clean energy, and infrastructure, and that many achievements have been made. He expressed hope that bilateral understanding can be further deepened, and that ties and cooperation can be further enhanced.
A short time later, President Ma held discussions with President and Mrs. Loeak, during which President Ma said that his counterpart is an outstanding politician and traditional leader. Since President Loeak took office in 2012, the alliance between the two nations has only gotten stronger, he remarked. In addition, President Ma noted, President Loeak sent him a message in July of this year not long after a series of gas explosions rocked Taiwan's large southern city of Kaohsiung, expressing his sympathies and condolences. The president said that he was deeply touched by this gesture.
As for bilateral cooperation projects, President Ma stated, in the area of human resources, each year a number of students from the Marshall Islands obtain scholarships under a program operated by the ROC to provide financial assistance to students in friendly and allied nations to study in Taiwan. He also pointed out that quite a few officials from the Marshall Islands also come to Taiwan to participate in various workshops and seminars. The president noted that during a visit to the Marshall Islands in 2010, he agreed to expand the number of scholarships provided to students from that nation to nine each year from three in order to meet that nation's need to train talent.
President Ma further stated that the School of Medicine for International Students at I-Shou University in Kaohsiung was inaugurated last year and that one student from the Marshall Islands is currently studying there. This year, two other students from the Marshall Islands were accepted, he said. In addition, there are six young people from the Marshall Islands receiving training at the Taichung branch of the Workforce Development Agency and it is expected that they will return to their home country to provide service at the end of December. In response to President Loeak's policy objective of being an "education president," President Ma said he hopes that even more students from the Marshall Islands can come to study in Taiwan, as this would plant even more seeds for friendship between the two countries.
In the area of health and medicine, President Ma stated, Taipei Medical University's Shuang Ho Hospital runs the Taiwan Health Center Project in the Marshall Islands, under which the two countries jointly promote education in public health. Shuang Ho Hospital has dispatched a mobile medical team to that nation and is training local medical staff at various workshops. This, he said, has been quite helpful in raising the standard of health care in the Marshall Islands.
On the subject of technical cooperation in the fields of agriculture and fishing, President Ma said, the ROC Technical Mission to the Marshall Islands has successfully promoted various crops and hopes to increase hog production so that households on the outer reef islands can have enough protein in their diets, which would effectively address the high incidence of non-communicable disease in the Marshall Islands.
As for cooperation in energy, President Ma stated, the ROC starting in 2010 began promoting a clean energy project in cooperation with the Marshall Islands, providing that nation with solar-powered lamps, digital learning center systems, and systems to illuminate basketball courts on outer island atolls. These initiatives take advantage of the abundant sunshine in the Marshall Islands and boost the use of renewable energies, thereby providing more illumination in the evening hours and boosting the quality of life, the president said.
President Ma then mentioned that global warming has caused sea levels to rise, which threatens human survival in the Marshall Islands and other atoll nations in the Pacific. He expressed hope that the two sides can strengthen cooperation to jointly address this challenge.
President Ma also noted that President Loeak has spoken on behalf of the ROC during the General Debate of the UN General Assembly. He said that the government and people of the ROC will not forget the longstanding support of the Marshall Islands for Taiwan's meaningful participation in the World Health Assembly, the International Civil Aviation Organization, and other international organizations and conventions.
Lastly, President Ma emphasized that the two nations established diplomatic relations in 1998 and he hopes that substantive cooperation will continue to be strengthened in order to create a shared prosperity.
The delegation also included Mrs. Loeak, Minister of Foreign Affairs Phillip H. Muller, Member of the Nitijela Jerakoj Bejang, as well as Marshall Islands Ambassador to the ROC Phillip K. Kabua and Mrs. Kabua.