The recent meeting between President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has won approval in Washington, David Lee (李大維), Taiwan's representative to the US, said on Tuesday.
Washington was very interested in the Chen-Ma meeting said Lee, adding that US government officials were thoroughly scrutinizing an American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) report on the discussion.
Chen and Ma held a rare public meeting on Monday, highlighting their differences over relations with China and opposing views on a multibillion-dollar US arms procurement package.
Lee, responding to a question from the press after presenting soon-to-retire chairman of the US Congress House International Relations Committee Henry Hyde with the Order of the Brilliant Star with Grand Cordon on behalf of Chen, said that Washington was hoping to see more talks between the government and opposition parties over the next two years to facilitate the formation of consensus on economic and cross-strait issues.
He added that the issue of the scrapping of the National Unification Council (NUC) and unification guidelines was a thing of the past, and had not been brought up again by the US.
Concerning the meeting between Chinese leader Hu Jintao (
However, as China was likely to bring up the Taiwan issue during the talks, Taipei will be paying particular attention to how they develop.
Lee told reporters that he had yet to receive any directives from Taipei regarding making arrangements with US officials for Chen's planned trip to Central America in May.
Responding to comments made to the Chinese-language press by Assistant US Trade Representative for China Affairs Timothy Stratford that signing a Free Trade Agreement with Taiwan was not currently a US priority, Lee said that the preparations were an ongoing process, and not something that would necessarily bear fruit in the space of one or two years.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
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