President Ma Ying-jeou met on the morning of May 24 with Burkina Faso Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Cooperation Djibrill Yipènè Bassolé. The president, on behalf of the government and people of the ROC, extended a cordial welcome to Minister Bassolé on his visit to Taiwan.
The president remarked that Minister Bassolé is an outstanding political figure with an impressive educational background. The minister in the past served as Burkina Faso's military police commander, as well as Minister of Security. He also served a previous stint as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Cooperation. Three years ago, he accompanied Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaoré to Taiwan to attend President Ma's inauguration, and this visit, the president said, comes just one month after he was re-appointed as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Cooperation. Minister Bassolé is leading a delegation here to better understand the state of Taiwan's industrial development, the president remarked, adding that Minister Bassolé has also been the Joint African Union-United Nations Chief Mediator for Darfur since 2008, helping to forge regional peace and stability. Minister Bassolé, the president said, has been highly praised by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
The president commented that the two countries have engaged in a wide range of cooperation projects since resuming formal diplomatic relations in 1994. In fact, the scale of the projects continues to expand, he said, and people-to-people contacts between the two sides are frequent. Last year on Africa Day, a student from Burkina Faso studying here delivered a speech in fluent Mandarin and Taiwanese, which he said made a deep impression on him. In addition, President Ma noted that Burkina Faso has supported participation for the ROC in international activities, sparing no effort in helping to expand room for the ROC in the international community. In particular, Burkina Faso was elected to the International Civil Aviation Organization Council in 2010, enabling it to provide significant assistance to the ROC, he said.
In discussing the ROC's foreign aid policies, the president stated that the ROC is extremely pleased to cooperate with Burkina Faso and to expand the Light for Africa project, which seeks to provide lighting in rural areas in Burkina Faso in the evening. He said the Bureau of Employment and Vocational Training's Central Training Center has specially developed a solar lamp using LEDs for this project. He expressed his hope that the project will help to better enable students in rural areas in allied and friendly countries to be able to study at home in the evening.
Minister Bassolé, Technical Advisor Ouango Frédéric Clément Ouedraogo, Director General of Bilateral Relations François Oubida , and Minister Assistant Halidou Savadogo were accompanied to the Presidential Office in the morning by Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Chin-tien Yang (楊進添) and Burkina Faso Ambassador to the ROC Jacques Sawadogo to meet President Ma. Also attending the meeting was National Security Council Advisor Tung Kuo-yu (董國猷).