President Ma Ying-jeou met with former Australian Prime Minister John Howard on the afternoon of February 1 at the Presidential Office. The president, on behalf of the government and people of the ROC (Taiwan), extended a cordial welcome to former Prime Minister Howard on making a special trip to Taiwan to attend a meeting of the International Democrat Union's Executive Committee.
The president commented that political organizations are a rather special type of private-sector entity. Quite a few political organizations exist throughout the world, and advocate specific political viewpoints, he said. The International Democrat Union, he added, is a mainstream political organization. Established in 1983, the Kuomintang and the Liberal Party of Australia are founding members of the organization.
President Ma furthermore stated that he visited Australia in 1986 and at the time invited Mr. Howard, then the opposition party leader, to visit Taiwan. After Mr. Howard returned to Australia, he submitted an article to Melbourne's Sunday Herald, praising Taiwan's progress. The president also praised former Prime Minister Howard for his work during his over 10 years in office in balancing the nation's budget and enhancing its national strength. He was one of Australia's greatest prime ministers, the president said, noting the outstanding contribution that former Prime Minister Howard made to his country. His status in Australia is equivalent to that of Margaret Thatcher in the UK, and he is truly a leader to be admired, President Ma said.
President Ma said in the 20 years since 1990 when former Prime Minister Howard last visited Taiwan, Taiwan has seen many changes. Its constitution has been amended several times, all seats in the legislature are now subject to re-election, and its president is now directly elected. Taiwan has become a constitutional democracy, he said. The president added that by the time he visited Australia again in 2006, relations between the two countries had become much closer. Australia, for example, was Taiwan's 11th largest trading partner by that time, and about 10,000 Taiwanese were studying in Australia. In addition, the two countries had signed over 30 memorandums covering a wide variety of areas. During former Prime Minister Howard's tenure in office, the two countries signed a youth working holiday agreement, providing young people from both sides an opportunity to engage in cultural interaction. In 2009, nearly 10,000 youth went to Australia on working holidays, he said, pointing to the success of this arrangement.
The president remarked that since he assumed office, he has promoted flexible diplomacy. In the process of improving relations between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, Taiwan has bolstered its relations with Japan, the United States, countries in Southeast Asia, and nations in the South Pacific, including Australia and New Zealand. Taiwan hopes to see further development of ties with Australia, he said. This development, however, does not mean Taiwan seeks to pursue official diplomatic relations with Australia, but rather increase substantive bilateral relations in the areas of trade, economy, culture and humanitarianism. In addition, the president said that the ROC (Taiwan) will no longer resort to checkbook diplomacy, which had been highly criticized. Rather, it will promote aboveboard diplomacy in an effort to win the respect of the international community, he said.
Former Prime Minister Howard said that he was impressed by the development of Taiwan over the past 20 years, especially with regards to living standards and its foreign exchange reserves. He also praised President Ma for implementing flexible diplomacy and striving to improve cross-strait relations.