President Ma Ying-jeou met on the morning of February 15 with Peggy Dulany Rockefeller, the founder of the Global Philanthropists Circle. The two exchanged opinions on a broad range of topics, including cross-strait relations and Taiwan-US relations.
The president remarked that Ms. Rockefeller is an important member of the Rockefeller family. She maintains considerable influence in the international political and economic arenas, and is involved in a wide variety of public service and charitable interests. Ms. Rockefeller has founded a number of internationally influential organizations, one being the Synergos Institute, created in 1986 and headquartered in New York. She serves as the chair of this organization, which maintains contact with dozens of nations throughout the world.
President Ma mentioned that in 2001 when he was serving as Taipei City mayor, he was invited to Tarrytown, New York to attend a conference on the trilateral relationship among Taiwan, the United States, and mainland China. He said that participation in this event provided him with many ideas that he would ultimately use to improve cross-strait relations. The president stated that since he took office over three years ago in May 2008, his administration has made every effort to strengthen relations between Taiwan and mainland China, and this has lowered tensions in the Taiwan Strait. To date, the two sides have signed 16 agreements. Follow-up talks are currently being held on one of the agreements – the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement.
With regard to progress in Taiwan-US relations, the president said that towards the end of last year, US Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Raj Shah and Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel B. Poneman made visits to Taiwan. In addition, the US government announced that it had nominated Taiwan as a candidate nation for the US Visa Waiver Program (VWP), and the president expressed his hope that Taiwan will formally be granted entry into the VWP in the second half of this year. The US government in September of last year also announced that it would sell Taiwan a package of defensive weapons, including kits to upgrade Taiwan's fleet of F-16A/B series fighter jets. This will further enhance Taiwan's ability to defend itself, and the sale of these arms also gives Taiwan greater confidence to engage in further negotiations with mainland China in the future. In addition, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in November of last year during the APEC meetings in Honolulu emphasized the strong relationship between the United States and Taiwan, stating that Taiwan is an important security and economic partner of the United States. President Ma said her description was quite apt.
President Ma specially expressed his gratitude to the United States for supporting Taiwan's efforts to participate in the activities of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the International Civil Aviation Organization, and for striving to enhance substantive relations between the two sides. Lastly, President Ma said he hopes that this visit will help Ms. Rockefeller better understand the close and friendly relationship between Taiwan and the United States, and that she will take Taiwan's friendship back with her to America.
Ms. Rockefeller was accompanied to the Presidential Office by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tung Kuoyu (董國猷) to meet President Ma. Also attending the meeting was National Security Council Deputy Secretary-General Chih-kung Liu (劉志攻).