Print

Mail

wiki links

Chen hopes spy plane spat won't damage arms sales

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said yesterday he earnestly hopes that the current US-China standoff over the military aircraft collision incident will not have any adverse impact on US arms sales to Taiwan.

Chen made the remarks while meeting with visiting US Senator John D. Rockefeller, a Democrat, at the Presidential Office.

"We are concerned about the `collision' incident and are hopeful that the week-long Washington-Beijing standoff over this matter can come to a close very soon," Chen told his guest.

It was the first time that Chen has publicly mentioned the issue regarding the midair collision between a US EP-3 surveillance plane and a Chinese jet fighter over the South China Sea on April 1.

Chen expressed his hope that the US government can use wisdom to resolve the issue peacefully through diplomatic channels in the shortest possible period of time.

As Taiwan and the US are scheduled to discuss Taiwan's arms procurement plans for 2001 later this month, Chen said he hopes the deal would not be linked.

Chen noted that although Washington and Beijing have engaged in close exchanges over a long period of time and have taken some confidence-building measures (CBM), the military aircraft collision incident still took place.

"The event has given us a great lesson. As the two sides of the Taiwan Strait have not forged any CBM, the consequences could be very grave if such a similar incident were to happen in the Taiwan Strait," Chen said.

Chen added that he believes there is an urgent need for Taiwan and China to craft a CBM mechanism.

Noting that Rockefeller has often stood up for Taiwan's national cause at critical moments, Chen said he is hopeful that Rockefeller can continue supporting Taiwan's bid to join the World Health Organization (WHO) as an observer.

"When the WHO holds its annual congress in Geneva later this year, US Congress members can exercise their clout to push other WHO member states to support our observer status bid," Chen said.

For his part, Rockefeller said he is also worried about possible adverse effects of the ongoing US-China standoff on Taiwan-US arms deals.

Rockefeller said he has expressed his concern to the US executive branch and urged the Bush administration not to link arms sales consideration to the "collision" incident.

The senator said he is willing to play an intermediary role between the US and the two sides of the Taiwan Strait and work for the development of constructive Taiwan-US-China relations.
This story has been viewed 2349 times.