President Ma Ying-jeou met on the morning of May 5 with Republic of Guatemala Foreign Minister Haroldo Rodas Melgar and Mrs. Rodas. The president, on behalf of the government and people of the ROC, extended a cordial welcome to the guests on their visit to Taiwan and expressed his hopes that this trip will help to further strengthen bilateral friendship and cooperation.
President Ma remarked that Foreign Minister Rodas has made four trips to Taiwan in an effort to enhance his understanding of the ROC and strengthen the cooperative relationship between the two countries, and when the president visited Guatemala two years ago, Foreign Minister Rodas accompanied him during his entire stay, making him feel very much at home. And in May and June 2009 when President Ma traveled to Central America to attend the inaugurations of the presidents of El Salvador and Panama, he met with Guatemalan President Álvaro Colom five times, he said. When Guatemala’s highway construction project undertaken by the ROC was completed last year, President Colom personally made a phone call indicating that the close relationship persists on both sides. In addition, the two countries share a commonality in their cultures in that both view adzuki beans as symbolizing friendship and affection. President Colom, he noted, previously presented him a memento made of Guatemalan adzuki beans. In a return gesture, the president said that this past February when he attended an adzuki bean festival in Wandan Township, Pingtung County, he wrote a poem to President Colom about adzuki beans describing how they remind him of their friendship.
The president furthermore said that cooperation projects between the two countries are progressing smoothly, and called for an even stronger cooperative relationship between the two nations. In addition, the president noted that he previously visited Guatemala's Tikal National Park to tour the Mayan ruins there. That visit helped to boost his understanding of Guatemala's culture, he commented, adding that the ROC is very pleased to assist Guatemala in carrying out maintenance of its cultural relics.
Foreign Minister and Mrs. Rodas were accompanied to the Presidential Office by Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Chin-tien Yang and Guatemala's ambassador to the ROC Héctor Iván Espinoza Farfán to meet President Ma. Also attending the meeting was National Security Council Advisor Tung Kuo-yu.