On the morning of May 21, President Ma Ying-jeou welcomed Republic of Paraguay President Luis Federico Franco Gomez and Mrs. Franco to Taiwan in a ceremony featuring full military honors. President Ma called for continued strengthening of cooperative bilateral ties and for a lasting alliance.
The welcoming ceremony was held at 10:00 a.m. at Liberty Square in front of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in downtown Taipei. A 21-gun salute was followed by the playing of the national anthems of the two countries, after which the two leaders inspected the tri-service honor guard. President Ma and President Franco then each delivered remarks, and Taipei City Mayor Lung-Bin Hau (郝龍斌) presented a key to the city to President Franco. Among those attending the ceremony were Vice President Wu Den-yih, senior ROC government officials, and members of the diplomatic corps stationed in Taiwan.
In remarks, President Ma commented that this was President Franco's second visit to Taiwan, while Paraguayan First Lady Emilia Alfaro de Franco, who is a member of the Chamber of Deputies, was making her third visit.
The president stated that when he visited Paraguay in August 2008 to attend presidential inauguration ceremonies, he held talks with then-Vice President Franco. He added that the warmth and kindness of the Paraguayan people, along with the nation's abundant natural resources, made a deep impression on him.
President Ma commented that the ROC and Paraguay both embrace freedom, democracy, and peace, and he pointed out that he unveiled his East China Sea Peace Initiative last August in response to the sovereignty dispute over the Diaoyutai Islets in the East China Sea. The president remarked that the ROC and Japan signed a fisheries agreement on April 10 this year, thus putting the principles of his peace initiative into practice. He also thanked Paraguay's legislative and administrative branches for praising and supporting the East China Sea Peace Initiative despite Paraguay's location in South America, which is quite a distance from Taiwan.
President Ma further mentioned that Paraguay has spoken on many occasions in international venues in staunch support for Taiwan's participation in the World Health Organization, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the International Civil Aviation Organization. This attests to the close friendship and sustained alliance between the two countries, he said. The president also called for even further cooperation and friendly relations between the two nations.
A short while later, the two heads of state held discussions at the Office of the President. At that time, President Ma noted that President Franco was sworn in on June 22 of last year, and in just 11 short months has made outstanding achievements in the areas of crime prevention, health, the environment, education, and infrastructure. In addition, a personal income tax bill that had been stuck in the legislative process for nine years was finally passed and implemented shortly after President Franco took office, thus launching an important reform in that nation's tax system, he said. President Ma also commented that under the leadership of President Franco, Paraguay on April 21 of this year held parliamentary elections that were carried out peacefully and smoothly, establishing a good precedent for the transfer of power among political parties in Paraguay.
President Ma also thanked President Franco for Paraguay's decision on November 20 of last year to provide landing visas to ROC nationals upon arrival in that nation. Paraguay is the 130th country to provide visa-free courtesies or landing visas to ROC nationals, he said, which will further facilitate bilateral ties.
The president mentioned that in addition to his attendance at the inauguration of the president and vice president of Paraguay in August 2008, in 2011, when Paraguay celebrated the bicentennial of its independence, he appointed then-Vice President Vincent C. Siew (蕭萬長) to attend the celebrations in Paraguay as his special envoy. The fact that President Franco is now making another visit to the ROC as the head of a delegation signals a continuation of frequent visits by high-ranking officials of the two countries and attests to the stable bilateral alliance, he said.
President Ma concluded his remarks by expressing hope that this visit will enable the visitors to better understand Taiwan and lead to a further expansion of the bilateral cooperation.
The Paraguayan delegation led by President Franco and Mrs. Franco included Chamber of Deputies President Victor Alcides Bogado Gonzalez, Minister of Foreign Affairs Jose Felix Fernandez Estigarribia, Senators Celso Orlando Fiorotto Sanchez and Amancio Lopez Irala, Supreme Court Justice Gladys Ester Bareiro de Modica, Minister of Information and Communication Gustavo Kohn, and Paraguay Charge d'Affaires to the ROC Carlos Jose Fleitas Rodriguez. Also attending the discussions were ROC Vice President Wu, Secretary-General to the President Timothy Chin-Tien Yang (楊進添), National Security Council Secretary-General Jason C. Yuan (袁健生), and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Simon Shen-Yeaw Ko (柯森耀).