President Ma Ying-jeou met with a delegation of Canadian parliamentarians, led by Member of Parliament Bob Dechert, at the Presidential Office on the morning of January 12 and extended a warm welcome to the visitors. The president remarked that this is the first delegation from Canada to visit Taiwan in the new year and the sixth delegation with which he has met since taking office. This demonstrates the gradual strengthening and warming of relations between Taiwan and Canada, he said.
President Ma commented that the two nations severed formal diplomatic relations 40 years ago. During the first 20 of those years, official interaction between the two countries was limited, but in the past decade or so, bilateral relations have become closer. The president noted that each year 150,000 Taiwanese visit Canada, and that some 2,500 students from Taiwan are currently studying in Canada, making Canada is the fourth most popular destination for Taiwan students studying overseas, he said. Meanwhile, the value of bilateral trade each year is in excess of US$5 billion. Taiwan is Canada's fourth largest trading partner in Asia. All of this points to the continued strengthening of relations between the two sides, he said.
President Ma furthermore said that when he was elected, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper expressed his congratulations through the ROC's foreign minister. Prime Minister Harper also dispatched an envoy to attend the inauguration ceremonies here. President Ma remarked that the most important reason for these changes, especially in light of the fact that Canada does not maintain diplomatic ties with the ROC, is that Taiwan's democratic development has enabled Canada to sense that the two nations share the universal values of freedom, democracy, rule of law, and human rights. This will form an important basis for further enhancement of bilateral ties in the future, he said.
The president said that on May 18 last year, Taiwan's Health Minister had the opportunity to attend the World Health Assembly (WHA) held in Geneva. This marked the first time that the ROC (Taiwan) had participated in an important conference of a United Nations (UN) affiliated organization since the ROC lost its UN representation 38 years ago. President Ma expressed his deepest appreciation for the assistance provided by Canada in this regard.
The president also stated that since improving its relationship with mainland China, Taiwan has secured greater elbow room in the international community. Besides attending the WHA last year, Taiwan hopes in the future to be able to participate in United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and in activities and conferences of the International Civil Aviation Organization. The latter would be beneficial to the development of Taiwan's civilian aviation industry, he said.
Mr. Dechert, on behalf of the visiting delegation, expressed appreciation and gratitude to President Ma for taking time out of his schedule to meet with them. He also said that Canada highly values and realizes the importance of the universal values of freedom and democracy as mentioned by President Ma. They said they hope that there will be even greater opportunities for interaction on the economic and trade front between the two countries, with Canada further becoming a friendly trading partner to Taiwan.