President Ma Ying-jeou on the morning of August 11 attended the 40th General Assembly of the Asian-Pacific Parliamentarians' Union that is being held in Taipei. The president expressed his appreciation to the parliamentarians from nations in the region that have come to Taiwan to participate in the event. The president noted that Typhoon Morakot caused serious damage here and the government is making every effort to carry out rescue and relief work. President Ma asked all the guests to join him in a moment of silence to mourn those who were killed by the typhoon.
President Ma commented that the Asian-Pacific Parliamentarians' Union was established in 1965. The objective at the time was for representatives to share experiences in the hard fought battle for freedom and democracy, as well as to promote sustained peace and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region. The organization has been in existence for over 40 years, and the Asian-Pacific Parliamentarians' Union has become a platform for interaction and cooperation for parliamentarians from nations in the region. Parliamentarians have the opportunity to exchange opinions and form a consensus on a variety of topics of shared concern, becoming important reference for governments in the region, he said.
The president remarked that several speakers had mentioned that the focus of international concern has shifted from traditional ideas of security to other areas of safety, such as food, climate and environmental security. In particular, disease is one area that can have an enormous impact. Therefore, disease prevention is a topic that the ROC has spent considerable effort promoting in recent years. The president said he is extremely pleased to see the participants at this conference jointly engage in discussions on environmental security, economic security, health security and food security.
President Ma noted that he has made every effort since taking office in May of last year to improve relations between Taiwan and mainland China and with other nations. On the one hand, a dialogue between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait that had been halted for 10 years has resumed. In the three meetings held by representatives of the two sides, Taiwan and mainland China have signed nine agreements covering direct air and sea links between the two sides, food security, joint combating of crime, and mutual judicial assistance. He said that this has successfully alleviated the tense situation between the two sides that has existed for the past 60 years. Meanwhile, we have also successfully re-established relations based on mutual trust with the United States, Japan, Europe, New Zealand and Australia, he said.
President Ma said we are looking to be a peacemaker. Given Taiwan's critical geographic location, improvement of relations with mainland China and with other countries is of utmost importance. The president said that over the past 14 months he has made three trips to Latin America and the Caribbean. In addition to reiterating the ROC's intention to strengthen cooperation with its diplomatic allies, the nation is also promoting the concept of a diplomatic truce with mainland China. As a result, we will avoid the past practice of seeking to lure away the allies of mainland China and will no longer engage in confrontation with mainland China on the diplomatic front. Rather, more efforts will be placed on economic cooperation and cultural exchanges with our own allies, he said. This policy will enable Taiwan to exist in a more hospitable international environment and will help promote regional peace, he said.
President Ma said that at present while the ROC still has only 23 diplomatic allies, it is expanding its participation in the international community. For instance, he pointed out that after four years of efforts, we finally became a party to the Government Procurement Agreement. In addition, after 12 years of work, we were finally able to attend the World Health Assembly in May of this year as an observer. This was especially significant, as it marked the first time that we took part in activities of a United Nations-affiliated organization since the ROC left the UN many years ago, President Ma said. In the future, the president added, we will continue to work so that Taiwan can be an international peacemaker. We will continue in our efforts to strengthen relations with both diplomatic allies and nations with which we do not maintain formal diplomatic ties, he said.