President Ma Ying-jeou held discussions with Republic of the Marshall Islands President Jurelang Zedkaia and Mrs. Zedkaia at the Presidential Office on June 30. The president, on behalf of the government and people of the ROC, extended a cordial welcome to President and Mrs. Zedkaia, and expressed his desire for a lasting alliance, friendship, and cooperative relationship between the two nations.
President Ma remarked that the ROC and the Marshall Islands have enjoyed a stable alliance since establishing diplomatic relations in 1998. Cooperative projects have been carried out in areas such as agriculture, fisheries, education, culture, medical care, IT hardware, infrastructure, and vocational training, and have yielded outstanding results. President Ma said that the two countries share the same philosophies and objectives, and expressed his hope that bilateral cooperation will be further strengthened in the future. The president stated that in the future the ROC will carry out the Pacific Regional Observer Program in the Marshall Islands to train local people to monitor the fisheries industry and ensure compliance with expectations from regional fishing organizations.
The president stated that bilateral cooperation projects have yielded concrete results. In the area of medical cooperation, the president said that when he visited the Marshall Islands he saw examples of local residents being treated successfully for cataracts at a health center established by Taiwan. At the same time, in an effort to reduce the number of people who develop cataracts in the Marshall Islands, the ROC is preparing to donate 1,000 pairs of sunglasses to the nation. In terms of cultural exchanges, students from National Taiwan University went to the Marshall Islands last year to take part in a youth ambassador exchange program. This year, he said, students from National Dong Hwa University will be travelling to the Marshall Islands to engage in interaction in the areas of arts and culture, language, and sports education. Meanwhile, the ROC government plans on expanding the number of scholarships it provides to students from the Marshall Islands. This will encourage even more students from the Marshall Islands to come to Taiwan and pursue their studies here in coursework that is entirely in English, he said.
President Ma stated that since he took office, he has promoted the concept of "flexible diplomacy" and has worked to ensure that, in implementing foreign aid, the ROC will "seek proper goals, act lawfully, and exercise effective administration." He specially thanked the Marshall Islands for advocating the ROC's participation in international organizations at international venues, and expressed his hope that the Marshall Islands will continue to support the ROC in its objective to participate in the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC), thereby enabling Taiwan to play a constructive role in the international community.
The delegation that met in the morning with President Ma at the Presidential Office included Marshall Islands Foreign Minister John M. Silk and Chief of Protocol Mrs. Neijon Edwards. Also present at the meeting were Vice President Vincent C. Siew, Presidential Secretary-General Liouyi Liao, and Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Chin-tien Yang.