President Ma Ying-jeou on the afternoon of August 27 at the Presidential Office met with American academic Professor Robert Sutter and other participants in The 37th Taiwan-American Conference on Contemporary China. The president expressed a warm welcome to the guests on behalf of the government and the people of Taiwan.
President Ma said that participants in the conference are all outstanding American academics, with each having a deep understanding of and having carried out research over the years in cross-strait relations and China-US relations. He said this is particularly noteworthy given the various changes currently taking place in cross-strait ties and Taiwan-US relations. The president said the visit to Taiwan by these academics is extremely meaningful and that he is confident that their input will be very beneficial to Taiwan's academic and political communities.
The president said that it appears the pace of development in cross-strait relations over the past three months has been greater than that of the previous eight years. Virtually no progress was seen in cross-strait relations over the previous eight years, he added. The president said that while trade volume between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait has exceeded the US$130 billion level, no direct transportation links had been established between the two sides. It was only on July 4 of this year when direct flights between the two sides were initiated on a charter basis over the weekend that the people of Taiwan started to realize that cross-strait relations had entered a new era. In addition, cross-strait ties over the past decade had been unstable and at many periods were stagnant. Since the new government took office, however, relations have become extremely vibrant, with both sides working to foster peace and prosperity. President Ma said he is pleased by these positive developments, adding that he hopes the direction taken will lead to greater peace and wellbeing.
President Ma furthermore said that while Taiwan is working to improve cross-strait relations, it is also hoping to further strengthen Taiwan-Japan and Taiwan-US relations. He said that the United States has long hoped that Taiwan would avoid emphasizing sovereignty issues in order to prevent confrontation with China. At the same time, the United States has hoped Taiwan would express its determination to be able to defend itself. In order to show its intention to be able to defend itself, Taiwan last year approved seven military procurement budgets. Presently, he said, Taiwan is waiting for US administrative agencies to notify Congress of the various legal procedures that must be carried out to realize the sale of the arms.
In speaking about Taiwan-US relations, President Ma said Taiwan is working hard to re-establish mutual trust at high levels of government in both nations. He said Taiwan wants to make perfectly clear that Taiwan will follow through with its policies toward Mainland China, the United States and Japan in an open and stable manner. Taiwan also hopes that a level of trust can be fostered between high-ranking officials in Taiwan and the United States to gradually enable both sides to anticipate the moves by the other. President Ma said he is confident that this will lead to the stable development of ties between Taiwan and the United States.
In moving to issues of diplomacy, President Ma said that the new government has aired the concept of a truce in the diplomatic arena. It hopes that reconciliation can be seen in Taiwan's international relations, just like reconciliation in the cross-strait relationship. This would enable both sides to avoid having to engage in vicious competition in the international community to seek diplomatic allies, he said. President Ma said that an initial consensus on a diplomatic truce has been reached between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait over the past few months. He said he believes this will be a positive step in fostering future peace and prosperity among the two sides.
The guests said that Taiwan's new cross-strait policies and the Taiwan-US relations are critical to maintaining peace and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region. They said they hope Taiwan will continue to serve in a role working to maintain peace and contribute its utmost to fostering regional stability.