`Track two' talks to be held by New York Asia Society

Taiwan officials are scheduled to attend a closed-door round-table meeting hosted by the Asia Society next week in New York along with US policymakers and Chinese scholars.

Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is scheduled to present a paper on cross-strait relations at the conference.

Also attending will be Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) from the President's Office, who will meet up with President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) delegation in Central America.

Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), chairwoman of the Mainland Affairs Council, was invited to give a keynote speech during the meeting but she declined the offer.

The meeting on "US-Sino Relations and Cross-strait Relations" is scheduled for Aug. 14 and Aug. 15 and is part of the "track two," an informal channel of communication between the US, China and Taiwan.

From the US, China experts such as David Lampton, the director of China studies at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and Kenneth Lieberthal, the former senior director for Asian affairs at the National Security Council, are scheduled to be in attendance.

Chinese scholars from the Shanghai Institute for International Relations, a think tank affiliated with the Association for Relations Across the Strait (ARATS), will also be in attendance.

Chen is leading a 200-person delegation on a two continent tour of Taiwan's diplomatic allies in Central America and Africa.

He is to depart on Aug. 13, transiting through Los Angeles en route to his first stop in the Dominican Republic on the same day, before moving on to Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Chen will then fly to Africa to visit Gambia, Burkina Faso and Chad.