President Ma Ying-jeou met on the afternoon of October 7 with participants in the fifth session of a training course organized by the ROC Ministry of National Defense for officials from friends and allies in Latin America and the Caribbean. The president, on behalf of the government and people of the ROC, expressed a cordial welcome to the group.
The president said that this activity promotes bilateral friendship and is also highly conducive to the strengthening of ties between all sides. The president pointed out that he has visited Latin America and the Caribbean four times since taking office, and the trips have left a good lasting impression on him.
President Ma remarked that the ROC has maintained diplomatic relations for over half a century with the nations of all of the guests. Since 2003, he said, the ROC has signed four free trade agreements with its five diplomatic allies in the region, and these pacts have yielded outstanding results.
The president noted that early this year he traveled to Honduras to attend the inauguration of Porfirio Lobo Sosa as president of that nation. Since Haiti, an ally of the ROC, suffered a devastating earthquake prior to his trip, while in the region he made a special visit to the Dominican Republic to hold a three-way meeting with Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernández and Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, which helped to decide the basic direction that the ROC would take in providing assistance to Haiti. A rescue team from the ROC arrived in Haiti less than 48 hours after the quake, he said, and the team was able to successfully rescue two survivors. In addition, team members also worked with counterparts from other nations in saving seven more victims.
President Ma noted that the ROC is carrying out a large aid project in Haiti, which includes helping in the construction of 1,200 permanent residences and establishing vocational and public health training centers. The Taiwan branch of World Vision is also sponsoring over 8,000 Haitian orphans. The president remarked that since taking office his administration has promoted a policy of flexible diplomacy, of which humanitarian aid forms an important part. The ROC will continue to embrace this attitude in the future and forge cooperative relationships in other parts of the world with the hope of taking meaningful part in the international community and making a contribution. The president also expressed his appreciation to the ROC's diplomatic allies for their assistance in enabling the ROC to attend the World Health Assembly, and expressed the hope that ROC allies will support our participation in the International Civil Aviation Organization and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The president stressed that his administration has worked actively over the past two years to improve relations with mainland China with the objective of reducing tension in the Taiwan Strait and enabling the two sides to engage in economic and cultural interaction in a peaceful environment. The president reassured the guests, however, that the ROC's improved ties with mainland China will not impact its relationships with its allies. Existing cooperation projects will continue, and will even be expanded or extended where both sides agree to it.
Lastly, the president stated that he is confident that over the past three weeks the guests will have had the chance to experience the ROC's diverse culture and lifestyle. He said he hopes they will take the Taiwan experience back with them to their home countries, thus providing a foundation for even closer relations in the future.
The delegation, which included officials from Honduras, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Paraguay, and Peru, was accompanied to the Presidential Office in the afternoon by Minister of National Defense Kao Hua-chu to meet President Ma. Also attending the meeting was National Security Council Deputy Secretary-General Ko Kuang-yueh.