President Ma Ying-jeou met on the morning of June 15 with Hans van Baalen, President of Liberal International and Vice Chairman of the European Parliament-Taiwan Friendship Group. The president extended a warm welcome to Mr. van Baalen and expressed appreciation for his longstanding support for the ROC.
The president noted that when Mr. van Baalen was the chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the Dutch House of Representatives he opposed the lifting of the European Union's (EU) arms embargo on mainland China when the measure was discussed by the Dutch parliament in 2003 and 2005. At the same time, Mr. van Baalen has supported Taiwan's participation in the World Health Assembly (WHA). The Dutch parliament, the president commented, unanimously passed a resolution in this regard, which demonstrates how friendly it is toward Taiwan. Mr. van Baalen subsequently became a Member of the European Parliament (EP) and began serving as Vice Chairman of the EP-Taiwan Friendship Group. He was elected as President of Liberal International in 2009 and has considerable influence in the European political circle, the president stated.
President Ma remarked that the EU and the EP over the past three years have passed 13 resolutions or statements friendly to Taiwan. In particular, the EP on May 11 of this year passed a resolution supporting the signing of an economic cooperation agreement between the EU and the ROC. It also reiterated its support for Taiwan's participation in the International Civil Aviation Organization and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, he pointed out.
The president furthermore stated that on November 11 last year 90% of the EP members voted in support of a resolution to grant visa-free status to ROC nationals visiting Schengen Agreement member states. Meanwhile, 98% of the members of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe , of which Mr. van Baalen is an influential member, voted in favor of this move, a gesture of friendship that the people of Taiwan will not forget. The president commented that the EU's decision in this regard was a wise one, as the number of Taiwanese visitors to the UK rose 150% last year after that nation granted ROC nationals visa-waiver status the previous year. In addition, trade between Taiwan and the UK last year rose an unprecedented 25%. In March of this year, the number of Taiwan visitors to EU member states increased 23.45%, the president noted, adding that he is confident that this number will continue to rise.
In terms of bilateral trade between Taiwan and Europe, President Ma noted that EU member nations have aggregate investments of US$30 billion in Taiwan, which accounts for over 30% of foreign investment here. Last year, bilateral trade grew 31% from the previous year to US$48.6 billion. Meanwhile, bilateral trade in the first four months of this year reached US$17.7 billion, an increase of 19% over the year-ago period which points to the continued progress in economic relations between the two sides.
President Ma explained to Mr. van Baalen that Taiwan and mainland China last year signed the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, and trade between the two sides has grown significantly since the agreement, which cuts tariffs, took effect on January 1 this year. He expressed his hope that Taiwan and the EU will have an opportunity in the future to explore the possibility of an economic cooperation agreement or another model of economic cooperation.
Mr. van Baalen was accompanied to the Presidential Office by Deputy Foreign Minister Lyushun Shen (沈呂巡) to meet President Ma. Also attending the meeting was National Security Council Deputy Secretary-General Chih-kung Liu (劉志攻).