President Ma Ying-jeou met on the afternoon of January 8 with a US Congressional delegation led by Senator James Inhofe, co-chair of the Senate Taiwan Caucus. The president extended a cordial welcome and expressed appreciation to the delegation for making the lengthy trip to Taiwan.
The president began his remarks by thanking Senator Inhofe for leading a delegation to Taiwan after recently being elected by Republican members of the Senate Armed Services Committee as their new ranking member. President Ma noted that this is the second visit to Taiwan for Senator Inhofe, who first travelled here in 1988, while this also marks the first visit by a group of American senators to Taiwan in over two years.
President Ma stated that he has strived to improve cross-strait relations since taking office, and his administration has created a mechanism that enables communication as equals and peaceful negotiations. To date, eight rounds of the "Chiang-Chen talks" have been completed, and the two sides have reached 18 agreements and two points of consensus in recent years. This has effectively reduced tensions in the Taiwan Strait and proved conducive to peace in East Asia, the president said.
President Ma stated that at the same time cross-strait relations have been warming up, Taiwan and the United States have also achieved progress in terms of cooperation in security and other areas. The president remarked that the ROC government has embraced a "low key, no surprises" approach in an effort to enhance mutual trust with the United States, adding that these efforts have yielded concrete results. President Ma cited one example, stating that former US President George W. Bush approved a sale of US arms to Taiwan valued at over US$6 billion just five months after President Ma was inaugurated in 2008. In addition, President Barack Obama has continued to maintain the policy of selling arms to Taiwan since he took office.
The president noted that the United States has sold over US$18 billion worth of arms to Taiwan over the past four-plus years, which constitutes a frequency and scale greater than at any other time since 1979. President Ma said that these arms sales have greatly helped Taiwan bolster its ability to defend itself. At the same time, many extremely influential members of the US Congress continue to pay close attention to Taiwan's purchases of arms from the United States, he said. Two years ago, the president remarked, 47 senators and 181 members of the House of Representatives signed their names to a joint letter or sent individual letters to President Obama urging him to sell Taiwan F-16C/D series advanced fighter jets. This signifies that the sale of arms by the United States to Taiwan continues to enjoy strong support in Congress, and is also welcomed by both the ruling and opposition parties here, he commented.
President Ma mentioned that the US Department of Homeland Security on October 2 of last year formally announced that it would include Taiwan in the US Visa Waiver Program. Taiwan was formally included in the program on November 1, becoming the 37th nation to be admitted, and the only nation in the program with which the United States does not maintain formal diplomatic relations. The president expressed confidence that interaction between the two countries will continue to increase in the wake of Taiwan's admission to the Visa Waiver Program, enabling bilateral relations to become even closer.
In discussing regional security, President Ma emphasized that the sovereignty dispute over islets in the East China Sea should be resolved peacefully. He said that the Diaoyutai Islets are inherent territory of the ROC, but while sovereignty over national territory cannot be compromised, natural resources can be shared. It was with this philosophy in mind that Taiwan unveiled its East China Sea Peace Initiative, he noted. Taiwan took out space in four major newspapers on the east and west coasts of the United States to publicize the initiative, expressing the hope that negotiation and dialogue can be used to alleviate any possible confrontation. Taiwan, he remarked, is willing to cooperate in the development of resources in the area so long as all parties agree to shelve the dispute.
With respect to bilateral economic and trade issues, President Ma stated, Taiwan resolved the issue of US beef imports in July of last year. A couple of months later in September, Mr. Lien Chan (連戰), his representative to the APEC Economic Leaders Meeting in Vladivostok, Russia, reached a consensus with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that negotiations should be resumed under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA). President Ma said the next step in preparing to resume talks should take place in the coming days.
President Ma also thanked many members of the US Congress, including Senator Inhofe, for their strong support for meaningful participation for the ROC in international activities and organizations, such as the World Health Organization and the International Civil Aviation Organization. The president expressed his hope that the senators will gain an enhanced understanding of Taiwan on their trip and will continue to speak on behalf of Taiwan in the international community.
Senator Inhofe responded by saying that he selected Taiwan for his first overseas visit since being elected by his Republican colleagues as their new ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee on January 4 of this year. This, he stated, symbolizes the importance that the United States places on the development of relations with Taiwan. The Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) of 1979, he noted, represents America's commitment to Taiwan, adding that the United States will continue to work to fulfill the provisions of the TRA. In addition, the United States will sell 30 Apache helicopters to Taiwan in 2013, 60 Blackhawk helicopters in 2014, and three Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missile systems in 2015. This proves that the United States is firmly committed to fulfilling its pledges to Taiwan, the senator remarked. Senator Inhofe also commented that he will continue working to support Taiwan and hopes that even more US congressmen will join in the ranks of those supporting Taiwan.
The nine-member delegation led by Senator Inhofe included Senator John Boozman and Representatives Steve Pearce, Vern Buchanan, and Erik Paulsen. The group was escorted to the Presidential Office by Minister of Foreign Affairs David Y. L. Lin (林永樂) to meet President Ma. Also attending the meeting were Secretary-General to the President Timothy Chin-tien Yang (楊進添) and National Security Council Advisor Francis Yi-Hua Kan (甘逸驊).