Four US East Asian affairs experts from an influential think tank -- the National Committee on American Foreign Policy (NCAFP) -- are scheduled to arrive in Taipei today for a four-day visit.
The NCAFP conducts a biannual roundtable that has become the so-called "second track" in US-Taiwan relations.
Foreign minister-designate Tien Hung-mao (
Among the visiting experts is former assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, Winston Lord, who also served as US ambassador to China.
Douglas Paal, president of the Washington-based Asia Pacific Policy Center and a former member of the National Security Council under the Bush administration, NCAFP President George D. Schwab, and Professor Donald S. Zagoria, head of the roundtable committee and former member of the NSC, are also part of the delegation.
The delegation will meet with President-elect Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), Minister of Foreign Affairs Chen Chien-jen (程建人), defense minister-designate Wu Shih-wen (伍世文), and Tien Hung-mao, among others, during their stay in Taipei.
The NCAFP was founded in 1974 by late Professor Hans J. Morgenthau -- an influential scholar of the "realist school" of international relations -- with the aim of advising the US government on furthering its national interests through national policy.
Its current honorary chairman is former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
The think tank has held five closed-door roundtable meetings on US-China relations and cross-strait issues since the 1996 missile crisis, when China launched missiles into the sea off Taiwan.
The next roundtable session is scheduled for June of this year.
Following its visit to Taiwan, the delegation will travel to China for a similar fact-finding visit.
The NCAFP is expected to present foreign policy recommendations to US Vice President Al Gore and Texas Governor George W. Bush, the two presumed US presidential candidates for the upcoming November election.
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