President Ma Ying-jeou met on the afternoon of November 30 at the Presidential Office with Jimmie Foster (National Commander of the American Legion) and Mrs. Foster, Carlene Ashworth (National President of the American Legion Auxiliary), and Cortina Barnes (National President of the Ladies Auxiliary to the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States). The president extended a cordial welcome to the visitors on their trip to Taiwan.
The president remarked that the American Legion is an extremely important organization in the United States and has a membership of over three million located in the United States and throughout the world. Many of its members are opinion leaders in their respective fields and have enormous influence in American society, he said.
Over the past two decades, the American Legion has passed resolutions at numerous annual conventions supporting friendly relations between the United States and the ROC and calling for continued sales of defensive arms to the ROC in accordance with the Taiwan Relations Act. The president specially expressed his appreciation for these gestures.
President Ma commented that there are also many veterans in the ROC, and over the past several decades they have played a crucial role in recovering Taiwan and then protecting, building, and defending it. The government has consistently put heavy emphasis on the interests of veterans and provided assistance in the areas of education, health care, and senior citizen support services. He said that the government hopes veterans will continue to play a role in society and make a contribution to the nation.
After thanking President Ma for taking time to meet with the group, Commander Foster said he looks forward to exchanging opinions on a broad range of issues with the ROC's Veterans Affairs Commission, and called for continued cooperation and interaction between the two sides.
The visitors were accompanied to the Presidential Office in the afternoon by General Tseng Jing-ling, Minister of the Veterans Affairs Commission, to meet President Ma. Also attending the meeting was National Security Council Deputy Secretary-General Ko Kuang-yueh.