President Ma Ying-jeou met on the afternoon of October 9 with Guatemalan Supreme Court of Justice President Josue Felipe Baquiax and Mrs. Baquiax. President Ma talked about the wide-ranging interactions between the ROC and Guatemala and expressed hope for deeper bilateral relations.
In remarks, the president stated that Mr. Baquiax is a distinguished leader in Guatemala's legal community who has served in positions ranging from judge and presiding judge of a district court and Supreme Court justice, having become Supreme Court of Justice president in November of last year. At the same time, he has served as an instructor at Guatemala's national university and published many books on legal topics. Mr. Baquiax, the president said, has enormous academic and practical experience, and has long been a strong proponent of judicial interaction between the ROC and Guatemala. In addition to leading justices from the Supreme Court in attending donation ceremonies associated with a bilateral judicial cooperation project, he has also repeatedly expressed his willingness to sign a judicial cooperation framework agreement with the ROC's Judicial Yuan. That agreement was finally signed on October 8 by Mr. Baquiax and Judicial Yuan President Rai Hau-min (賴浩敏), and will enhance judicial cooperation between the two countries, the president said.
President Ma then noted that Guatemala has a lovely nickname—The Land of the Eternal Spring. It appropriately describes the pleasant climate enjoyed there throughout the four seasons of the year, and also signifies the friendly, hospitable, and warm character of its people. The president led a delegation from the ROC to Guatemala in May 2009, and he said that the gorgeous scenery and rich culture made a deep impression on him. He recalled that while he was there he was invited to deliver an address before the Guatemalan Congress, which at that time was also celebrating the 24th anniversary of the nation's constitution. The president said he felt a strong sense of friendship and support for the ROC from all levels of Guatemalan society.
President Ma also mentioned that Alejandro Maldonado Aguirre, the new president of Guatemala, is a distinguished member of the judicial community and an outstanding politician who previously served as a justice and president of the Guatemalan Constitutional Court. He has long been a friend to the ROC and previously received the Order of Brilliant Star with Grand Cordon. Guatemala's new Ambassador to the ROC Olga Maria Aguja Zuniga on August 17 of this year presented her credentials to President Ma, while the ROC's new Ambassador to Guatemala John C.C. Lai (賴建中) took up his new post on October 1. The ROC's outgoing ambassador, Adolfo Ta-chen Sun (孫大成), was awarded the Order of the Judiciary of Guatemala (la Orden del Poder Judicial de Guatemala ) by Mr. Baquiax in recognition of his contributions in Guatemala for many years. Given this frequent and close interaction, "I'm confident that our bilateral relations will be even stronger going forward," the president said.
President Ma stressed that the ROC places great importance on its relations with its allies, and that the alliance between the ROC and Guatemala has been stable since relations were established in 1933. Cooperation between the two sides has been quite close throughout a wide range of projects in recent years. Those projects have reached to all corners of Guatemala and directly benefited the public. Pointing to medical cooperation as an example, the president noted that the ROC began its cooperation in 2012 with the First Lady's Secretariat for Social Work (Secretaria de Obras Sociales de la Esposa del Presidente, SOSEP). Each year the ROC holds free clinics in remote areas that lack medical resources, and has donated ambulances, wheelchairs, and other medical goods. Guatemala in 2005 also suffered damage due to severe storms, while in 2012 it was shaken by a severe earthquake, and this year it has succumbed to drought. The ROC government, the president said, has provided timely assistance, and in the future will continue to provide related assistance guided by three principles: the purpose must be legitimate, the process must be lawful, and the implementation must be effective
As for judicial interaction between the two countries, the president stated that in 2014 the ROC assisted Guatemala in its program to modernize their Judicial School, as well as a project to create four care and legal defense centers for children and youth. These projects strive to promote the training of Guatemalan judicial personnel and related vocational training, and assist underprivileged youth and women of that nation in obtaining legal protection. President Ma also noted that this past August, the two countries signed a project to provide business counseling to Guatemalan micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises to enhance their capacity. Through this project, the ROC hopes to share its SME development experience and help boost Guatemala's economic development, said the president.
Commenting on Guatemala's substantive acts in support of the ROC's participation in the international community, the president stated that Guatemala is a staunch Central American ally, and that it has long firmly supported Taiwan's meaningful participation in the international community and United Nations (UN)-affiliated organizations. The president then expressed his gratitude for the spirit of friendship that Guatemala showed this year in speaking out on the ROC's behalf at the UN General Assembly, supporting Taiwan's participation in the International Civil Aviation Organization and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.