President Ma Ying-jeou on the afternoon of October 3 at the Presidential Office met with France's Arab World Institute President Mr. Dominique Baudis. The president, on behalf of the government of the ROC, extended a warm welcome to Mr. Baudis and the two exchanged opinions on a wide range of topics related to how to strengthen bilateral cultural interaction.
President Ma said that interaction between Muslim culture and Chinese culture can be traced back to the 8th century. To this day, Taiwan and Mainland China are home to many devout Muslims. He said he believes that cross-cultural interaction is beneficial to enabling the people of Taiwan to gain a better understanding of Muslim culture. President Ma added that when he served as Taipei mayor, the Taipei Mosque at one point was slated to be torn down. He said he made every effort to spare the Mosque from that fate in order to protect a building in Taipei that has a distinct foreign architectural style as well as a venue for persons of the Muslim faith to gather and pray.
Institute President Baudis thanked President Ma for taking time out of his busy schedule to meet with him. He added that his main hope on this trip is to iron out a plan with Taiwan's National Palace Museum to hold a joint exhibition. He said that if the talks progress smoothly, an exhibit will be held in Taipei and Paris. In addition, it is his desire for the exhibit to tour major cities in Muslim countries, he said. This would foster interaction between Muslim and Chinese culture and would promote mutual understanding, he said.
Mr. Baudis was accompanied to the Presidential Office in the afternoon to meet with President Ma by former President of Voies Navigables de France Mr. Francois Bordry, France's representative to Taiwan Mr. Patrick Bonneville, and Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Javier Ching-shan Hou.