President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said yesterday that he has put great weight on trilateral relations between the US, Japan and Taiwan since assuming office in May 2000.
Chen made the remarks while meeting with three members of Japan's Diet from the Kumamoto prefecture. He said he is glad to see progress in Taiwan-Japanese relations in the past few years and the smooth progress of the Taiwan-US-Japan security dialogue.
"The three countries share interests in security, stability and peace in the Asia-Pacific region," Chen said.
In his talks, Chen reiterated that Taiwan is a country with its own sovereignty, adding that "Taiwan has to walk its own path, a path of democracy, freedom and human rights."
He explained that not only should Taiwan take this path, but so should Japan, "because this is the most correct path, which contains universal values," he said.
Chen went on to tell his guests that Taiwan wants to play a more active role in the international community and fulfill its obligations as a member of the "global village."
"Taiwan must break the diplomatic embargo imposed by Beijing and walk out into the world to upgrade its international profile," he said.
In response, Japanese lawmakers Ryoichi Honda and Hitoshi Kimura expressed their great concern about relations between Taiwan and Japan.
They said the two countries should expand exchanges and strengthen cooperation in economic and cultural affairs.
The two said they also hoped that all Asia-Pacific countries can sign free-trade agreements to form an Asia-Pacific free-trade sphere for mutual benefit.
In related news, talks among US, Taiwanese and Japanese scholars were held yesterday in Taipei.
It was the first round of talks hosted by Taiwan Thinktank, founded by the DPP and comprising scholars thought to be close to the party.
Yesterday's talks are to become a regular series of talks among scholars from the three countries.
Though declining to reveal the content of talks yesterday, Taiwan Thinktank released a news letter saying that the purpose of the meeting was "to look for possible issues for the three sides to cooperate on to establish strategies regarding security in the Asia-Pacific region."
The letter also stated that the issues in the first round of meetings include three perspectives -- military security, political democratization and the framework of economic cooperation.
Conclusions reached by scholars from the three countries in the meeting will be made public on Thursday.
In addition, Japanese veteran diplomat Hisahiko Okazaki will deliver a speech regarding relations between the US, Japan and Taiwan as well as cross-strait relations on Thursday before the news briefing is held.
The meetings are being jointly organized by Taiwan Thinktank, the Okazaki Institute, Vanderbilt University and the American Enterprise Institute.
RSS