Office of the President Republic of China(Taiwan)

President Ma Ying-jeou on the morning of August 4 at the Presidential Office met with a visiting delegation of Japanese parliamentarians friendly to , led by Japanese Congressman Tetsuro Yano. President Ma, on behalf of the ROC government and the 23 million people of , expressed a warm welcome to the guests. He also explained to them ’s efforts in strengthening relations with and fostering peace and stability in .

   
President Ma said that the delegation visiting this time comprises three members of the Liberal Democratic Party, one member of the Democratic Party, and one independent. He said the delegation is representative of the main political parties in ’s parliament. In addition, all of the members of the delegation have visited at least once previously, with Congressman Yano having visited 16 times and Congressman Oe Yasuhiro having made 17 trips to . The president said he is pleased that so many Japanese parliamentarians friendly to are able to visit.

   
The president also said that in addition to interaction among parliamentarians from and , private exchanges between the two countries are also extremely close. tourists now enjoy visa-free courtesies when traveling to . In addition, both countries recognize the driver’s licenses issued by the other, he said. Most recently, has allowed charter flights from carrying tourists to its northern neighbor. All of these moves have helped to boost exchanges and friendship, the president said. Last year, people from made 1.38 million visits to , while Japanese made 1.16 million tourist visits to , bringing total visits between the two countries to a new high of over 2.5 million. President Ma said he hopes that after returning to , Congressman Yano will continue to provide assistance in fostering bilateral interaction, enabling even more Japanese to come to visit for tourism, business or study.

President Ma said he hopes the visitors will rest at ease with regards to the improvement in relations between the two sides of the . He said that improved cross-strait relations will not impact ties between and or their longstanding friendship. President Ma said the objective of improving cross-strait ties is to pursue peace and prosperity between the two sides, which he is confident will lead to stability in . This is in the national interests of , he added. He said that when he met with Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and Foreign Minister Taro Aso two years ago, the two Japanese officials expressed support for his viewpoint. In recent years, has continued to improve relations with Mainland . Increased visits by high-ranking officials have been seen between those two countries, which is a development that welcomes, he said.

President Ma stressed that the international community hopes to see peace and prosperity in . He said that the ROC government is now carrying out work with this in mind, adding that the also embraces this stance. He said that President George W. Bush in an interview with the media on July 30 said he is delighted to see the improvement in relations between the two sides of the .

   
Congressman Yano expressed his appreciation to President Ma for taking time out of his busy schedule to meet with him and the delegation. He reiterated the desire of the parliamentarians to maintain friendly ties between and . He added that he is confident all of the parliamentarians visiting on this trip share the same attitude. They hope in the future to continue to do their utmost to foster and strengthen substantive bilateral relations and cooperative exchanges, he said.