President Ma Ying-jeou on the afternoon of October 11 presented the Order of Brilliant Star with Grand Cordon to Monique Papon, Vice President of the French Senate and Chairwoman of the French Senate's Taiwan Friendship Group, in recognition of her outstanding contributions to promoting ties between the ROC and France in a variety of fields.
The ceremony to bestow the honor was held at 3:30 p.m. at the Presidential Office. Among those witnessing the ceremony were Mr. Papon, French Institute in Taipei Director Patrick Bonneville, National Security Council Deputy Secretary-General Chih-kung Liu (劉志攻), and Deputy Foreign Minister Lyushun Shen (沈呂巡).
In remarks, Vice President Papon stated that receiving this honor from President Ma is the highest honor for her in her political career. Culture, she said, is the best means to promote understanding among people. The French Parliament is pleased to serve as a bridge in promoting cultural interaction between the two countries, enabling bilateral relations to reach new levels, she remarked.
Shortly afterwards, during discussions between President Ma and Vice President Papon, the president noted that the vice president seven years ago assumed the chair of the Taiwan Friendship Group. Since then, the parliament has promoted a range of innovative cultural activities, such as Taiwan Night. This event, the president said, was originally a cultural activity outside of the institutional system. Subsequently, however, it developed into a special activity focusing on Taiwan culture and began to draw widespread attention. This year, the president mentioned, the ROC's representative office in France held the Taiwan Night at the French Senate to celebrate the ROC's centenary. A video short entitled Shining Taiwan, which was produced by the ROC Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was screened during the event, enabling everyone to understand the developmental achievements of Taiwan in recent years, he said.
President Ma commented that a former French culture minister [Jack Lang] is noted for the famous saying, "France has 44 ministries and all of them are cultural ministries." In other words, each one of France's ministries works to promote French culture, enabling the world to have a deep sense of the importance that France places on culture, he said. Therefore, Vice President Papon's active assistance to the ROC's representative office in France in promoting bilateral cultural exchanges not only conforms to French tradition, but also meshes well with the national policy of the ROC, the president stated.
The president cited a number of examples that point to the close relations between Taiwan and France. The ROC and France were Asia's and Europe's first democratic republics, President Ma said, furthermore pointing out that France is Taiwan's second largest technical cooperation partner. Three non-stop flights operate the Paris-Taipei route each week, and the number of French citizens residing in Taiwan is the fourth highest among Western residents here. Meanwhile, each country is the fifth largest trading partner of the other, while France is one of the six most popular destinations for Taiwanese students to study overseas. President Ma expressed his hope that France will in the near future sign a working holiday agreement with Taiwan, which he said would promote interaction among youth.
President Ma told Vice President Papon that the number of Taiwanese visiting Europe in the March-August period has risen 40% from the same period a year earlier thanks to the entry of Taiwan into the European Union's visa waiver program. This demonstrates that the decision by the European Parliament and the European Council to grant visa-free courtesies to Taiwanese is having an enormous positive impact on relations between the two sides, he said. Meanwhile, more countries have followed in Europe's footsteps, with the number of jurisdictions granting visa-free courtesies or landing visas to Taiwanese now at 124, compared with 54 when he took office in May 2008.
The president noted that October 9 marked the 50th wedding anniversary of Vice President Papon and Mr. Papon, which is traditionally referred to as the golden wedding anniversary here. This shows the everlasting affection between the two, as well as the strength of their bond, he said. President Ma expressed his hope that relations between the ROC and France will be modeled on this and that they will continue to move forward.