President Ma Ying-jeou is scheduled to take part in a videoconference on April 9 at 8 p.m. Taipei time (8 a.m., April 9, US Eastern Daylight Time) with CSIS, a noted think tank based in Washington, DC. Many important public officials and academics will be participating in the event in Washington, while President Ma will be taking part from the Office of the President.
After an introduction by Dr. John J. Hamre, CSIS president & CEO and former U.S. deputy secretary of defense, the event will be moderated by Christopher K. Johnson, who holds the Freeman Chair in China Studies at CSIS. Speakers at the event will include Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL), co-chair of the US Congressional Taiwan Caucus, and Dr. Paul Wolfowitz, former president of the World Bank and current chairman of the US-Taiwan Business Council. During the videoconference, President Ma will deliver a keynote speech focusing primarily on the solid partnership between Taiwan and the United States, and on Taiwan's regional security and economic roles. His keynote speech will be followed by a Q&A session with the scholars and others in attendance at the event.
This event will be the fifth time that President Ma takes part in a videoconference with important US opinion leaders to exchange views on Taiwan-US relations and regional conditions, and is part of a series of events being held this year to mark the 35th anniversary of passage by the US Congress of the Taiwan Relations Act. The president also took part in a videoconference last year with Stanford University in California. The president's speech and his exchange of views with videoconference attendees will help people in the US better understand Taiwan's efforts to maintain regional peace and to take part in the process of regional economic integration. The activities will also highlight the strong friendship and close cooperative ties between the two nations.
The videoconference will be streamed live on both the Chinese (www.president.gov.tw) and English (http://english.president. gov.tw) websites of the Office of the President. To watch the live stream via our English website, click on the "Bulletin Board" tab near the lower right-hand corner of the home page, then click on the link to the videoconference, and it will play automatically. In addition, Radio Taiwan International (RTI) will also broadcast the videoconference live in both Chinese and English.