President Ma Ying-jeou met on the morning of April 22 with Christopher Terence Wood, the newly appointed director of the British Trade and Cultural Office in Taiwan. On behalf of the government and people of the ROC, the president welcomed Director Wood to Taiwan to take up his new post and called for continued strengthening of the bilateral friendship and enhanced cooperation in a variety of areas.
In remarks, the president first noted that Director Wood previously worked in mainland China and Hong Kong for a number of years and speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese. He had visited Taiwan three times before, the president said, adding that since taking his post Director Wood has held meetings with a variety of government agencies and private organizations here. The president expressed confidence that Director Wood's deep understanding of Taiwan society and Chinese culture will enable him to be successful in his post, and will promote the relationship between Taiwan and the United Kingdom (UK).
President Ma expressed condolences upon the passing of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and related that he had once had a short conversation with former Prime Minister Thatcher in Berlin in 1987, which made a deep impression on him. The president added that the world has lost a great political leader.
President Ma remarked that the ROC and the UK both embrace freedom, democracy, respect for human rights, and the rule of law. In recent years, he pointed out, bilateral interaction has been quite frequent on a number of fronts. For instance, the UK in March 2009 led the European Union by instituting visa-free courtesies for ROC nationals. In the wake of that move, short-term visits to the UK by ROC nationals surpassed 93,000 in 2012, he said. In addition, the Youth Mobility Scheme between the two nations formally went into effect on January 2012, he noted. This measure, which enables youth from Taiwan to work and tour in the UK, has been extremely well-received, the president commented. All of these initiatives show that interaction and cooperation between the two countries in the areas of technology, education, environmental protection, culture, and tourism have increased significantly, the president said.
President Ma mentioned that in 1985 there were only 36 Taiwanese students studying in the UK. At the time, he said, he was deputy secretary-general of the Kuomintang, and took advantage of a visit to Taiwan by Sir Philip Carter Goodhart, a member of the upper house of Parliament, to engage in discussions that helped pave the way for the British government to hold a UK university fair in Taiwan to promote greater educational interaction between the two sides. Presently, the president noted, he is pleased to see that the number of students from Taiwan studying in the UK stands at about 15,000.
The president further stated that the UK is Taiwan's third largest trading partner in Europe, while Taiwan is the UK's seventh largest trading partner in the Asia-Pacific region. Bilateral trade in 2012 stood at US$6.9 billion, up 5.4% from the previous year, and the president expressed hope that the volume of trade between the two nations will continue to grow.
The recent signing of a Taiwan-Japan fisheries agreement, the president commented, marks the biggest improvement since the dispute between the two nations over the sovereignty of the Diaoyutai Islets came to the fore. The president said that the ROC has not ceded one inch in terms of its sovereignty over the islands, yet has made big progress in protecting the fishing rights of ROC fishermen. The agreement applies to seas covering an area of roughly 74,000 square kilometers, which is twice the size of Taiwan. In the future, Taiwanese fishermen operating in this zone will not face interference by the Japanese side, which means that ROC fishermen have an additional 1,400 square nautical miles (roughly 4,530 square kilometers) of seas in which to operate. In addition, in accordance with the agreement, a Taiwan-Japan fisheries committee will be formed and the committee will continue working to forge consensus on related issues, he said.
President Ma also mentioned the North Sea oil fields, explaining that European nations were willing to shelve their sovereignty dispute and instead focus on jointly developing resources, enabling Brent Crude to become one of the most important petroleum trading classifications in the world. The president remarked that this constitutes an ideal model for dispute resolution that could be replicated by the parties to the dispute in the East China Sea. Consequently, he said, he last year unveiled the East China Sea Peace Initiative, urging all parties to shelve the dispute and share the fisheries resources of the area. President Ma mentioned that the fisheries agreement between Taiwan and Japan can be looked at as a step toward realizing the East China Sea Peace Initiative. The president thanked the Japanese government for responding positively to the ROC's call to resolve the dispute in a peaceful manner, and also thanked Europe for inspiring his peace initiative through its method of handling the North Sea oil fields dispute. The president further expressed hope that the fisheries agreement will be a first step toward settling the Diaoyutai Islets sovereignty issue. Beginning with the joint sharing of resources, tensions among the parties involved can gradually be reduced, he said, which will ultimately help to promote peace and prosperity in the East China Sea.
Accompanying Director Wood were Deputy Director of the British Trade and Cultural Office in Taiwan Margaret Tongue and Head of the office's Political Sector Fleur Willson. The delegation was escorted to the Presidential Office by Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) Secretary General Gary Song-Huann Lin (林松煥) and MOFA Department of European Affairs Director-General Mien-sheng Hsu (徐勉生) 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).