President Ma Ying-jeou met on the morning of February 26 with former US deputy secretary of state Richard L. Armitage, who was in Taiwan as the leader of a delegation from the Project 2049 Institute. In addition to welcoming the delegation to Taiwan on behalf of the government and people of the ROC, the president also called for continued strengthening of cooperation and interaction between the two sides to foster an even deeper bilateral relationship.
In remarks, President Ma stated that since taking office he has made every effort to restore mutual trust at the highest levels between the ROC and the United States, adding that his administration has embraced a policy of "low key, no surprises" in its interactions with the United States. As a result, the president said, bilateral ties are the best they've ever been since the diplomatic relationship between the two nations was severed in 1979.
President Ma stated that a number of senior American officials and influential Congressional delegations have made visits to Taiwan in the past two years, including U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Rajiv Shah, Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel B. Poneman, Under Secretary for International Trade at the Department of Commerce Francisco J. Sanchez, and US Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs Jose W. Fernandez. Meanwhile, this year already Senator James Inhofe (co-chair of the Congressional Taiwan Caucus), Republican senator from Alaska Lisa Murkowski (ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee), and Representative Ed Royce (chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee) have all made trips to Taiwan. Furthermore, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stressed two years ago during the APEC meetings in Honolulu, Hawaii that Taiwan is an important security and economic partner of the United States. All of these examples demonstrate a significant improvement in relations between the ROC and the United States, President Ma said.
In discussing specific developments in ties between the two countries, the president stated that on November 1 of last year the ROC formally became the 37th country to be included in the US Visa Waiver Program (VWP), and is the only nation in the VWP that does not maintain formal diplomatic ties with the United States. The president cited statistics indicating that ROC nationals make over 400,000 visits to the United States each year. He expressed confidence that this number is poised to increase in the wake of Taiwan's entry into the VWP. At the same time, he said, a larger number of visitors to the United States from Taiwan will result in greater spending there, which will enable bilateral interaction to continue to increase and relations between the two to become even closer.
In turning to the topic to economic and trade ties, President Ma stated that in July of last year Taiwan resolved the issue of imports of US beef. Subsequently, at the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting held in Vladivostok, Russia in September of last year, Mr. Lien Chan (連戰) (the president's envoy to the meeting), and Hillary Clinton (then US Secretary of State) reached a consensus on the resumption of negotiations between the two sides under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement. President Ma noted that progress on this front is anticipated in March of this year, adding that this "building block" approach will help to gradually forge expanded bilateral cooperation. At the same time, he expressed hope that the United States will help Taiwan create the necessary conditions to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The president said this would enable Taiwan to become increasingly involved in regional economic integration. On a related front, the president explained that Taiwan is currently in negotiations with Singapore and New Zealand on economic cooperation agreements, and that it is hoped that these pacts will be completed soon. These would further build momentum toward achievement of Taiwan's objective of greater participation in regional economic integration, he said.
With respect to the issue of the Diaoyutai Islets, the president stressed that nations throughout the world are deeply concerned about this sovereignty dispute. He pointed out that two months prior to Japan's announcement in September of last year that it was "nationalizing" the Diaoyutais, the ROC believed that such an action would lead to a "strong reaction," and in August of last year the ROC unveiled its "East China Sea Peace Initiative." The president reiterated that the Diaoyutais are inherent territory of the ROC and are appurtenant to Taiwan. But, he stated, although sovereignty over national territory cannot be compromised, natural resources can be shared. The peace initiative was proposed with the hope that all parties involved could shelve the sovereignty dispute for the time being and instead jointly develop resources in the area, he remarked, adding that this is the only way to resolve the dispute.
President Ma furthermore introduced that the East China Sea Peace Initiative calls in the first stage for bilateral talks to be held between the three parties involved. Once results are seen from these talks, a second stage of "trilateral negotiations" could be held, with an eye towards gradually reducing the geographical area dispute, he said. The president noted that the Japanese government believes that "acknowledgement of the dispute impacts its claim to sovereignty." He opined that this attitude is mistaken, stressing that what he advocates is a "shelving of the sovereignty dispute" and not "shelving of sovereignty." President Ma pointed to the Yellow Sea as an example. He explained that in 1972 Japan and Korea signed an agreement on the joint development of resources at the bottom of the Yellow Sea. This agreement, however, does not have any impact on the claims of sovereignty over the area made by both Japan and Korea, he said.
As for cooperation in military affairs between Taiwan and the United States, President Ma noted, over the past four years the United States has agreed on three occasions to sell arms to Taiwan worth an aggregate amount of over US$18 billion. This not only marks the largest arms sale to Taiwan in the past two decades in terms of both items purchased and the total value of the deals, he said. However, the president stated, the government will not rely solely on the military to maintain peace between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. Cross-strait rapprochement over the past four or five years, he remarked, has constituted the first line of defense for Taiwan. Furthermore, he commented, Taiwan continues to act as "a peacemaker" and "a provider of humanitarian aid" in the international community, and the friendship and goodwill thus achieved with other countries constitutes its second line of defense. The armed forces, he said, are but the last of Taiwan's three lines of defense. These methods are appropriate given the current state of affairs, and can also keep the two sides on a path to lasting peace, he added.
President Ma stressed that when he took office five years ago, direct scheduled flights did not exist between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. Starting next month, however, the number of flights between Taiwan and mainland China will increase to 616 per week, he said, which means that relations between Taiwan and mainland China are now at their most peaceful and stable state in the past 60 years. President Ma concluded his remarks by expressing his appreciation to the United States for repeatedly and publicly expressing its commitment to the "Six Assurances" that were made under the Reagan administration.
The delegation also included Professor Joe DeTrani of the University of Missouri, and President and CEO Randall Schriver of the Project 2049 Institute. The group was escorted to the Presidential Office by Deputy Director Brent Christensen of the Taipei Office of the American Institute in Taiwan 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 Secretary-General Jason C. Yuan (袁健生).