Office of the President Republic of China(Taiwan)

President Ma Ying-jeou met on the morning of June 18 with the Republic of Paraguay's Supreme Court President Victor Manuel Nunez Rodriguez. The president, on behalf of the government and people of the ROC, extended a cordial welcome to President Nunez on his visit to Taiwan.

President Ma remarked that President Nunez over the years has worked as an attorney, judge, and law professor, and has also served as a visiting professor at universities in Argentina, Colombia, and Costa Rica. Legal books he has published have had considerable influence throughout the Latin American legal community, and since being appointed as a justice on Paraguay's Supreme Court he has been selected numerous times to serve as president of the court. President Ma pointed out that President Nunez has a pre-eminent reputation in the legal field, and added that he is deeply honored to have this opportunity to have a discussion with such an esteemed member of the legal profession.

The president furthermore said that four years ago he visited Paraguay to attend the inauguration ceremonies for President Fernando Lugo, and last year he asked former Vice President Vincent C. Siew (蕭萬長) to serve as his envoy to attend festivities in Paraguay marking that nation's 200th anniversary of independence. On May 20 of this year, President Lugo personally led a delegation to Taiwan to congratulate him and Vice President Wu Den-yih on their inauguration as the 13th-term president and vice president of the ROC. These frequent visits show that relations between the two countries are quite close, President Ma said, furthermore expressing his hopes that President Nunez will relay his best wishes and appreciation to President Lugo once he returns to Paraguay.

President Ma also commented that the last time Paraguay’s highest ranking judicial official visited Taiwan was in 1998. Paraguay and the ROC both operate according to civil law systems, he said, so both have adopted many legal traditions from the European continent. Consequently, he expressed his hopes that President Nunez's visit will help to foster judicial cooperation and interaction between the two countries. President Ma said that he has actively promoted judicial reform since taking office, and that the ROC's Supreme Court has also instituted a number of important judicial reforms in recent years. He said he hopes that President Nunez will exchange opinions with Taiwan's legal community on these reforms.

President Nunez was accompanied to the Presidential Office by Republic of Paraguay Ambassador to the ROC Carlos Martinez Ruiz Diaz to meet President Ma. Also attending the meeting were National Security Council Advisor Philip Y. M. Yang (楊永明) and Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Simon Shen-Yeaw Ko (柯森耀).