President Tsai meets former US Secretary of Defense William J. Perry
President Tsai Ing-wen met on the morning of March 23 with a delegation led by Dr. William J. Perry, former Secretary of Defense of the United States. She expressed hope that Taiwan and the US will continue moving forward toward prosperous development and peaceful stability on the solid foundation of cooperation.
In her remarks, President Tsai said that most people in Taiwan are very familiar with Dr. Perry's name, who is a mathematician, an engineer, and an important scholar specialized in "preventive defense". But what particularly noteworthy is, the president stated, that Dr. Perry served as US Secretary of Defense during the "Taiwan Strait Crisis of 1996" and played a key role in maintaining stability and peace in the region.
President Tsai also congratulated Dr. Perry on his new book My Journey at the Nuclear Brink published in 2016, which combines remarkable research and personal experience and deserves all the praise it has gotten. She expressed hope that the book will be translated and published in Taiwan, so more people here can read it.
The president noted that the delegation includes experts from politics and academia. The US is our most important partner in the world and both countries share the important values of freedom, democracy, and human rights. The two countries also maintain longstanding and in-depth cooperation on economics, trade, and regional security. Since economic and trade and security are the most important issues in Taiwan-US relations, she said she hopes to exchange opinions on a broad range of these issues in the meeting. President Tsai also expressed confidence that Taiwan-US relations will continue moving forward toward prosperous development and peaceful stability in changing international conditions.
The visiting delegation was accompanied by American Institute in Taiwan Taipei Office Director Kin Moy.