President Ma Ying-jeou met with Mr. Vasily N. Dobrovolskiy, Representative of the Representative Office in Taipei for the Moscow-Taipei Coordination Commission on Economic and Cultural Cooperation, at the Presidential Office on the morning of July 16. The president, on behalf of the government of the ROC, extended a warm welcome to Representative Dobrovolskiy.
President Ma specially expressed his appreciation to Representative Dobrovolskiy and other Russian agencies for providing assistance last month during First Lady Chow Mei-ching's visit to Russia as honorary head of the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan. The president said the performances were a success and were well-received by the residents of Moscow.
The president remarked that while Representative Dobrovolskiy has been in his position here for only a short period, he has been successful in reducing visa fees, which makes it easier for people from Taiwan to visit Russia for business and tourist activities.
The president furthermore said that the global financial crisis reduced trade between the two countries last year to only US$2.7 billion, down from US$3.6 billion the year earlier. In addition, due to inconvenient transportation links and linguistic barriers, there are only 20 Taiwan businesses that operate in Russia. The president noted that Russia is one of the BRIC nations, vast in territory, rich in commodities, with an illustrious culture, and home to abundant arts and cultural activities. In light of this, much room exists for trade and investment, as well as cultural and artistic interaction between the two nations, he said. This would strengthen bilateral relations and fit in well with Taiwan's policy of promoting the diversification of its export markets.
President Ma said that frosty cross-strait relations in years past had made it difficult to improve relations between Taiwan and Russia, but things have changed. He said that the government has strived over the past two-plus years to strengthen cross-strait relations. Tension in the Taiwan Strait has been reduced, and the two sides recently signed an Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA). Nations throughout the region have greeted the signing of the agreement with enthusiasm, since improved relations between mainland China and Taiwan are expected to create opportunities for strengthened relations between Taiwan and other nations in the region.
The president expressed his hopes that at this new juncture in history, Taiwan and Russia will be able to develop economic, cultural, and educational ties. In fact, he said, the two sides should also adopt a visa-waiver policy and allow direct flights between the two nations, which would help benefit bilateral ties.
Representative Dobrovolskiy, Consular Section Chief Iliya Semenov, and Assistant to the Representative Sergey Chudodeev were accompanied to the Presidential Office in the morning by Deputy Foreign Minister Lyushun Shen to meet President Ma. Also sitting in on the meeting was National Security Council Advisor Tung Kuo-yu.