President Ma Ying-jeou departed at 8:30 a.m. on July 11 Taipei time to visit three diplomatic allies in Latin America—the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Nicaragua—on a trip codenamed the Forever Rising Project. Shortly after the plane took off the president delivered remarks via the aircraft's public address system, explaining the plans and prospects for this journey.
The president stated that he will travel roughly 34,000 kilometers over the course of this eight-day trip. After a flight of about 14 hours and 40 minutes, he said, the chartered plane will land in Boston, Massachusetts and after spending one evening in the city, he will continue on to visit the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Nicaragua.
President Ma commented that this will not be his first visit to any of the three diplomatic partners. Rather, this will be his third visit to the Dominican Republic, and his second to both Haiti and Nicaragua. Recalling his previous trips to the Dominican Republic, the president said that his first trip overseas after he took office in 2008 was to attend the inauguration of former Dominican Republican President Leonel Fernandez in August of the same year. In 2010 following the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti, he took advantage of a trip to Honduras to attend the inauguration of former President Porfirio Lobo Sosa to swing through the Dominican Republic and meet with Dominican President Fernandez and the Haitian Prime Minister at that time, Jean-Max Bellerive, to jointly map out how to provide assistance to Haiti.
President Ma remarked that when he visited Haiti in 2013 he became the first ROC president to visit the Caribbean nation in the 57 years that the two countries have maintained diplomatic relations. On that visit, he attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the reconstruction of the Supreme Court Building, a bilateral cooperation project. The president said that he was deeply moved by President Michel Joseph Martelly's efforts to turn Haiti into a country based on the rule of law, and to make the reconstruction of the Supreme Court Building his first priority. Consequently, President Ma stated that he is extremely excited to attend the upcoming ceremonies marking the inauguration of that building. Meanwhile, the president indicated that he initially hoped he could visit the 200 permanent structures erected by the ROC, but that community is about five hours away from the capital and logistical issues required that he cancel that portion of the itinerary. Nonetheless, the bilateral assistance project is continuing, he said.
Turning to relations between the ROC and Nicaragua, President Ma emphasized that the bilateral alliance is quite stable and that Nicaragua has spoken on behalf of the ROC in many international venues. This is something that the government and people of the ROC will always remember with gratitude, he said.
The president went on to say that this is his 11th trip overseas and that these visits to the ROC's diplomatic allies are not just routine, as our ties with these 22 diplomatic allies are quite important. Consequently, the ROC must work to maintain regular contact with these countries to promote mutual cooperation, as this will enable the ROC to successfully promote its "viable diplomacy" policy. The president believes that one of the keys to the "viable diplomacy" policy is to forge harmonious relations between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, as good relations in this regard encourage both Taiwan and mainland China to respect the 1992 Consensus whereby each side acknowledges the existence of "one China" but maintains its own interpretation of what that means. This will gradually help increase mutual trust and make the ROC's diplomatic agenda and cross-strait relations complementary, thus creating a virtuous cycle.
Touching on the ROC's foreign aid policy, the president emphasized that his administration will continue to embrace the policy of "seeking proper goals, acting lawfully, and exercising effective administration." Although most cooperation projects are moving forward as planned, there are a small number of projects where improvements could be made, he said, adding that he hopes they will get back on track as soon as possible.
President Ma stated that diplomatic work is an important link in the ROC's survival and development. On this trip he has invited four lawmakers, the heads of the government's economics and trade agencies, a national policy advisor, and representatives from the business community to join him. The president hopes that this trip will be fruitful and that opportunities for cooperation with the ROC's allies will expand based on existing bilateral relations.