President Tsai meets US delegation led by Senator John Hoeven
On the afternoon of April 13, President Tsai Ing-wen met with a delegation led by United States Senator John Hoeven. In remarks, President Tsai thanked the US Congress for enhancing Taiwan-US security cooperation through a number of bills that provide strong backing to our efforts to improve Taiwan's self-defense capabilities. President Tsai also said that she looks forward to expanding our cooperation on all fronts, and fostering a more favorable environment for our businesses to drive growth and prosperity.
A translation of President Tsai's remarks follows:
I want to welcome Senator Hoeven and his delegation to Taiwan. Senator Hoeven, you have been a good friend and strong supporter of Taiwan in the US Congress. Senator Hoeven hails from North Dakota, an agriculture hub with which Taiwan has a longstanding relationship and signed a sisterhood agreement back in 1986.
North Dakota is one of Taiwan's most important agricultural trade partners. I know, Senator, that you have a great deal of experience in economics and trade. And, as governor of North Dakota, you sent trade delegations to Taiwan to explore business opportunities. I want to particularly thank you for your longstanding efforts in support of stronger Taiwan-US economic and trade ties.
Taiwan and the US are staunch partners that share the values of democracy and freedom. The US Congress has enhanced Taiwan-US security cooperation by passing a number of bills that provide strong backing to our efforts to improve Taiwan's self-defense capabilities. For this, I want to express sincere appreciation on behalf of the people of Taiwan.
Taiwan hopes to expand our cooperation with the US on all fronts. In January, we held the second round of negotiations under the Taiwan-US Initiative on 21st-Century Trade. We also hope to sign an avoidance of double taxation agreement with the US to create a more favorable environment for our businesses to drive growth and prosperity.
I know, Senator Hoeven, that you will continue to support and promote Taiwan-US economic and trade cooperation, work to consolidate relations among democracies to jointly uphold the values of democracy and freedom, and help to create more secure and resilient supply chains that are underpinned by democratic values. I look forward to an in-depth discussion with you on our cooperation in national defense and economic security, and to working together to safeguard regional peace, stability, and prosperity.
Senator Hoeven then delivered remarks, a transcript of which follows:
Thank you, Madam President. It is very good to be with you here in Taiwan and to have an opportunity to meet with you and your minister, your foreign minister, your national security advisor, and the people of Taiwan. As you said, we have many important relationships, economic relationships, agriculture, which, as you know is very important to my state, and security relationships. And we're here to talk about all of those with you.
I must thank you for mentioning some of my work with trade missions with Taiwan, and they go back almost 20 years. You're very young so it was before your time, but I've been at this for a while both as governor and now in the United States Senate. So in 2004, when I was governor, we sent a delegation to Taiwan. It was our first trade delegation and in 2005 then we signed an agreement along with others, whereby the Taiwan Flour Mills Association agreed to buy and in fact did buy 1.7 million bushels of wheat, and much of that wheat came from my state. So I say thank you, once again.
In the Senate I was part of signing agreements with Taiwan in 2013, in 2015, and 2019. And just last year, 2022, in September, important agreements that not only went to trade, and things like wheat, but also corn and soybeans and other things that are important to my state, but [also] important to our economy. And these were significant agreements of [sic] which you always performed extremely well. And your delegation last year said, well, Senator Hoeven, you must come to Taiwan. And I thought now it's an important time to come to see my friends.
We need to continue to work together on economic policies and issues. No one does a better job or is more sophisticated in making microchips than Taiwan. It's so very important to our economy. And as I said in agriculture, we need to do more. We provide wonderful food supplies to you, and there's so many other relationships, but also right now, we need to work together on security concerns.
We want peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. And we're very concerned about the aggressive action that we've seen from the PRC and China in the Taiwan Strait. And so we need to work together. And there are important ways that we can work together. I would say it starts with making sure that we provide the US$19.5 billion in military hardware which Taiwan has ordered and is paying for. I'm a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and specifically the Defense Appropriations Committee. So I work directly on these issues. So it's not only about providing that military hardware that you have purchased and that needs to be delivered – we're working on that – but also I'm here to listen to you and to your ministers to find out what else can we do to work together to again strengthen your defense and to work with you on that defense.
And I would want to talk about two other things as well in that regard, something that we have been working on, matter of fact, I've been working on it now as part of this trip to see you. We were just in South Korea talking about economic and security concerns and working together with South Korea. But it's not just South Korea and Taiwan, it needs to include regional cooperation throughout the Asia Pacific. So that means Japan and that means Australia and that means [the] Philippines for example, where you know, joint exercises are being conducted right now. And there are others: democracies, market-based economies that we can work together [with], not only on agriculture issues, on economic issues, but on security concerns to maintain peace and stability in the region.
All these things are important. But what I would like to conclude with, is that Taiwan has been a very good friend to me, to my state, and to the United States. And so it's very important that as friends, that we continue to stand together and work together for deterrence, for peace, and for prosperity. Thank you again for allowing us to visit and for hosting us. We appreciate it so very much, Madam President.
The delegation was accompanied to the Presidential Office by American Institute in Taiwan Taipei Office Director Sandra Oudkirk.