President Lee Teng-hui this morning met with two separate groups of Japanese Diet members and extended his warm welcome to them.
The first group, led by Senator HAYASHI Hiroko, comprised New Frontier Party female members in the upper house, including HIRONAKA Wakako, TAKEDA Setsuko, HAMAYOTSU Toshiko, YAMAZAKI Yoriko, ISHIDA Mie, NISHIKAWA Reiko, HAYASHI Kumiko, and WADA Hiroko. Madame Lee Teng-hui was also present at the meeting.
The other delegation, led by Senator IKEDA Motohisa, was composed of Democratic Party members in both the upper and lower houses, including SENGOKU Yoshito, EDANO Yukio, AZUMI Jun, GOTO Masanori, and OGAWA Katsuya. They were accompanied by ROC Vice Foreign Minister Cheng Wen-hua and Mrs. Yu Chen Yueh-ying, national policy advisor to the President, to the Office of the President for the meeting. Also present were Dr. Ding Mou-shih, secretary-general of the ROC National Security Council, and Mr. Stephen S.F. Chen, deputy secretary-general of the Office of the President.
President Lee told his guests that the ROC and Japan have a longstanding friendship and that, despite the absence of diplamatic ties, the two countries have consistently maintained close exchanges in economic, cultural and other fields.
He hoped people, officials and parliamentarians from both countries would increase exchange of visits to further enhance bilateral cooperation for mutual benifit.
Meanwhile, the President noted the ROC's national policy stems from three basic objectives: to safeguard the security of Taiwan by transforming the confrontation between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait into peaceful competition; to replace the authoritarian system of the ROC with a democratic; and to pragmatically seek appropriate international status for the ROC.
For their part, the Japanese lawmakers told President Lee that every time they visit Taiwan they are impressed by its progress. They also assured the President that they will continue to do their best to help upgrade substantive relations and expand cooperation between the ROC and Japan.