Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said regional peace and economic cooperation between Taiwan and Japan were at the center of her talks with Japanese officials yesterday after she and her entourage were pictured stepping out of the Cabinet Office in Tokyo on her final day of her visit to Japan.
The talks with unidentified Japanese officials were focused on how the two nations could cooperate to strengthen bilateral economic integration, regional stability and development, as well as business prospects and cooperative frameworks between the private sectors of the two nations, Tsai said when questioned by reporters.
However, she refused to answer whether the meeting involved Japanese ministerial officials.
Photo: CNA
Later yesterday, Tsai, former Presidential Office secretary-general Chiou I-jen (邱義仁), DPP Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) and other party officials visited the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) headquarters and were greeted by lawmaker and LDP Acting Secretary-General Hiroyuki Hosoda.
Tsai gave a speech at the LDP headquarters, saying that both the DPP and the LDP are parties reborn, while expressing hope that the DPP could return to power and gain a majority of seats in the legislature in the January’s presidential and legislative elections so that it could work with the LDP to improve the bilateral relationship.
“The LDP is a devoted and diligent ruling party, and I was very pleased to see that the LDP has been reborn and returned to power three years after it lost power,” Tsai said.
“The DPP has gone through a similar ‘regeneration’ over the past seven years, as the party reflected on its failures and made progress. I hope the DPP will be able to cooperate with the LDP as two ruling parties to reinforce the relationship between the two nations after the elections next year,” she said.
Asked by reporters how the DPP would uphold Taiwan’s sovereignty over the disputed Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) in the East China Sea — especially after the passage of legislation that allows the Japan Self-Defense Force to participate in foreign conflicts — Tsai said that the DPP’s stance on the islands is unambiguous: The islands belong to Taiwan.
Taiwan’s and Japan’s competing claims over the islands, known as the Senkakus in Japan, are negotiable, she said, adding that the fisheries agreement between the two nations inked in 2013 was a good precedent for the two nations to work out a “win-win” situation on the Diaoyutai Islands.
Chiou reportedly established a channel of communication with the Japanese Cabinet’s Intelligence and Research Office when he headed the National Security Council and the Cabinet visit yesterday was allegedly to renew that connection.
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