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President Tsai's remarks at a reception in Marshall Islands for traveling press corps

2018-03-26

President Tsai's remarks at a reception in Marshall Islands for traveling press corps

Friends from the media, the Marshall Islands was the third stop on my trip, and also the last of the three South Pacific diplomatic allies on our itinerary. We will depart tomorrow for a transit stop in Hawaii on our way back to Taiwan.

The countries we visited during this trip are all in the South Pacific. Taiwan has a total of six diplomatic allies in Oceania, and over the past few days, in each of the countries we visited our national flag was flying along the roads, with children on the roadsides also waving our flag.

Taiwan has many ongoing cooperation programs and interaction with all of these countries in fields like healthcare, agriculture, vocational training, and renewable energy.

For these countries, Taiwan is an important cooperative partner. It’s important that they are all democratic countries, so we share a belief in democracy and many of the same ideals.

We are all island nations, and especially in the South Pacific, the greatest challenge is climate change. You can all see that there really isn't much space left between the ocean waters and high ground. So climate change and global warming pose challenges to these countries that also serve as a warning for the rest of us.

In facing challenges posed by environmental change and rising temperatures, these countries have a lot of experience to share with us. We can also use our strengths to work with them to face the many challenges resulting from climate change.

I'm sure that our friends in the media have formed their own ideas about the countries we visited. We all know that tourism is important for Palau, and they’re committed to that industry. But even after China imposed a boycott on travel to Palau because of their diplomatic relations with us, Palau maintained its ties with Taiwan. We have also seen their commitment to environmental sustainability. On example is their Palau Pledge, prohibiting the use of sunscreen that’s toxic to the marine ecology. They are also committed to dolphin conservation.

But what’s most impressive is the fact that an international team came here to do research on Palau's coral reefs. Palau was long a major producer of coral, but due to climate change, their coral population was cut nearly in half. But they managed to completely preserve the coral in Neco Bay, which has tremendous significance for scientists and environmentalists alike. The international research team's presence and environmental surveys are useful for countries throughout the world, and we were unfamiliar with many of their concerns and breakthroughs.

I want to thank Palau for supporting Taiwan in the international community. While we will continue to pursue cooperative economic and social development projects with Palau, there is actually much that Taiwan can learn from Palau about sustainable development.

In Nauru we saw that President Baron Waqa has also maintained his commitment to democracy, and supported Taiwan in spite of heavy pressure from China. He was especially brave in speaking up for Taiwan at the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF). Yesterday, we also saw the Nauru Parliament pass a resolution opposing China's "one country, two systems model for Taiwan." For a small country, that shows great courage, and shows that there really are people willing to stand up and support Taiwan in the international community.

Today we're here in the Marshall Islands, which likewise also faces serious challenges due to climate change, and is pursuing sustainable development.

If you listened carefully at today's Pacific Women Leaders' Coalition Conference, many of the speakers offered keen insights on women's issues, and in terms of depth and breadth, the discussions were world-class. Those discussions reflected the issues facing women in this region, and how we should be thinking about and dealing with them. It was all very impressive.

Taiwan is also a maritime nation, and it would be well worthwhile to take the experiences of our diplomatic allies in the Pacific back home with us, and give them some serious thought.

You might also see that officials from our Coast Guard Administration are also in the delegation. During this trip Taiwan signed coast guard cooperation agreements with Palau and Nauru. We hope to collaborate on ocean research, humanitarian aid, and other activities to establish close links with our partners in the Indo-Pacific region.

There are also many other areas ripe for cooperation with countries in this region. So I'm sure that after this trip, we will continue to discuss such issues with like-minded countries so that we can invest our resources more effectively in Oceania and our cooperation projects can yield better results.

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