Taipei, April 14 (CNA) Republic of China President Chen Shui-bian Saturday stressed Taiwan's need for advanced defensive weapons to safeguard security in the Taiwan Strait.
Meeting with a delegation of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Chen said that maintaining the security of the Taiwan Strait is important not only to Taiwan's interests, but also to U.S. interests in the Western Pacific.
As the existing military balance across the strait is likely to shift in favor of the mainland in 2005, the president urged Washington to provide advanced defense weapons to Taiwan in accordance with the Taiwan Relations Act and other related commitments.
Chen praised U.S. President George Bush for his handling of the recent collision of a U.S. naval reconnaissance plane and a mainland Chinese jet fighter over the South China Sea.
He also expressed his appreciation that Bush had disconnected the incident with U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. Chen told the visitors that since his inauguration in May last year, his government has placed top priority on the maintenance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
He said that he has on several occasions displayed good will and sincerity calling for a resumption of cross-strait negotiations and exchanges. "Taiwan is not a trouble-maker, but a peace builder, and is an advocator and builder of Asia-Pacific peace and security," Chen added.
The president said he believes that relations between Taipei and Washington will be further strengthened in the future because the two sides share common values of democracy, freedom and human rights, have common expectations on peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region, and maintain close economic and trade ties.
During the talks, Chen also indicated his hope that the U.S. government will relax restrictions on trips to the United States by ranking Taipei officials and on Taiwan visits by U.S. officials in charge of security, diplomatic and defense affairs.
Members of the U.S. Senate delegation included committee chairman Phil Gramm (R-TX), Robert Bennett (R-UT), Jim Bunning (R-KY) and Mike Crapo (R-ID).
They said they would continue to do their utmost to promote Washington-Taipei relations and expressed their support for the ROC's efforts to join international organizations.