President Ma Ying-jeou met on the morning of September 25 with Atul Keshap, Senior Official from the United States for APEC and Coordinator for Economic Policy in the US State Department's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs . During the meeting, the president reiterated the ROC's consistent stance on the Diaoyutai Islets issue, which is that the ROC will defend its sovereignty and fishing rights, advocate peaceful settlement of the dispute, and promote cooperative development of the area's resources. He urged the United States to continue to adopt a neutral stance on the issue, saying that he is confident that this will be conducive to the resolution of the dispute.
In remarks, the president stated that he unveiled his East China Sea Peace Initiative on August 5, urging all sides to recognize the existence of the dispute and to resolve the disagreement through peaceful means. President Ma commented, however, that Japan to this date has yet to recognize the existence of the controversy, which has made negotiations extremely difficult.
The president stressed that the seas around the Diaoyutais have been fishing grounds for ROC fishermen for hundreds of years. The Office of the Governor-General of Taiwan during Japan's colonial occupation of Taiwan (1895-1945) even designated the Diaoyutais as fishing grounds for Taiwan fishermen, he said. Taiwan's fishermen will naturally stand up for their right to fish in the area in order to avoid any impact to their livelihoods, he added. The ROC government, the president said, will adopt peaceful means in its effort to resolve the dispute, and President Ma added that he hopes Japan and mainland China will also promptly embrace peaceful means to solve the controversy.
The president stated that the United States over the past 40 years has remained neutral regarding sovereignty over the Diaoyutais. The president said he hopes the US government will continue to maintain this neutral stance, which would be conducive to resolving the dispute.
Turning to trade and economic issues, President Ma commented that the United States is Taiwan's third largest trading partner, while Taiwan is the 10th largest trading partner of the United States. To date, Taiwan has already signed the Cross-Straits Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) with mainland China, its largest trading partner, while signing the Taiwan-Japan Bilateral Investment Arrangement with its second largest trading partner. The president said that the Legislative Yuan in July amended the Act Governing Food Sanitation, which in effect resolved the issue of US beef imports to Taiwan. This also paved the way for preparations to resume negotiations under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) between the two countries, he said. In particular, during this year's APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting, the leader's representatives from Taiwan and the United States reached a consensus on this issue, he said, adding that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton subsequently dispatched Mr. Keshap to visit Taiwan and exchange opinions with counterparts here. The president said he is quite pleased by these developments.
President Ma furthermore stated that Taiwan is in discussions with Singapore and New Zealand on economic cooperation agreements, and talks are progressing smoothly. Although Taiwan at present is not ready to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the government will continue to work to create the conditions and abolish trade barriers with the hope of joining the TPP in the future. He said that he is confident that the completion of economic cooperation agreement negotiations with Singapore and New Zealand, and follow-up consultations with mainland China under the ECFA, along with expected progress in TIFA talks with the United States by the end of next year, will accelerate trade and economic liberalization here. When the time comes, we will be in a better position to further discuss the possibility of Taiwan joining the TPP, he said.
The president also mentioned that since taking office he has adopted the pragmatic policy of "shelving disputes and together creating win-win solutions ." Consequently, relations between Taiwan and the United States, Taiwan and Japan, and Taiwan and mainland China are the best they have been in the past 30, 40, and 60 years, respectively, the president said. In addition, presently 128 jurisdictions throughout the world provide ROC nationals with visa-free courtesies or landing visas. He expressed his hope that the United States in the foreseeable future will formally include Taiwan in its Visa Waiver Program, which he said will help promote bilateral interaction.
Senior Official Keshap was accompanied by State Department officials Raymond F. Greene (Director of the Office of Economic Policy, Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs ) and Christopher J. Beede (Director of the Office of Taiwan Coordination, Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs ). The three officials were escorted to the Presidential Office in the morning by American Institute in Taiwan Taipei Office Director Christopher J. Marut to meet President Ma. Also attending the meeting were National Security Council Deputy Secretary-General John C.C. Deng (鄧振中) and Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Vanessa Yea-Ping Shih (史亞平).