Vice President Annette Lu yesterday said that the government canceled President Chen Shui-bian's (
Lu blamed the Indonesia government for failing to keep its promise and said she will not facilitate any cooperation between the two countries in the future.
"During the whole process of arranging the president's visit to Indonesia, our government did everything it was supposed to by successfully keeping the visit a secret and covering all the details," Lu said at a tea gathering with reporters at the Presidential Office yesterday.
PHOTO: LIU HSING-DER, TAIPEI TIMES
"However, it was Indonesia who spoiled the plan," she said.
"I will not encourage Taiwanese to invest in or tour Indonesia," Lu said.
Lu told the media that the government didn't fail this diplomatic undertaking and that the Indonesian government should shoulder all the responsibility.
Lu traveled to Indonesia in August and had strongly advocated both facilitating trade relationships between the two countries and helping revive Bali's tourism industry, which was hit hard by a terrorist bombing in October.
Lu pointed out that Chen's visit had been arranged well in advance and that communication was conducted between the two presidential offices.
"Around 11:30pm on the eve of Chen's departure [Dec. 14], everything was going well and Chen was still planning to go ahead with the visit. However, Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri convened an emergency meeting around midnight and then the situation changed quickly," Lu said.
Lu said that she received an emergency call at 2am and was told of the change. She immediately suggested the president cancel his visit.
Pro-Taiwan politicians on Indonesia's side convened another meeting and urged Chen to go ahead with the plan.
"I immediately condemned the Indonesian government for breaking its promises that night and asked the Indonesian government to take full responsibility," Lu said.
Lu said that the plan had been officially canceled around 4am Dec. 15 because Indonesia still could not promise to treat Chen according to diplomatic protocol.
Lu emphasized that the arrangement for Chen's visit was well thought-through, cautious and flexible.
The government kept its word and back-up plan preparations were proceeding well.
Lu said that the responsibility for the cancellation of the visit should fall squarely on the Chinese government for interfering in Taiwan's diplomatic affairs.
"I am wondering why, when the real and only enemy is Beijing, the media and opinion leaders ignore this and just point fingers at our government," she said.
Lu said that some diplomats from the previous administration still tried to conduct the country's diplomacy with a defeatist mindset and tried to embarrass the government through their own failures.
"These people owe the nation an apology," Lu said.
"So if there are any negative effects on bilateral relations, the Indonesian government should be fully responsible for it," Lu said.
Meanwhile, deputy secretary-general of the Presidential Office, Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), also explained the policy-making process of the event to reporters, vowing that the plan for Chen's visit had been made by very high-level officials in both countries.
"We were hoping to achieve two things during the visit. First, the administration wanted to express Taiwan's humanitarian concern about the terrorist attack in Bali. And Chen had intended to try to foster trade cooperation in Yogyakarta Province," Wu said.
He said that the preparatory work for carrying out the visit took over three months, during which Indonesia's government had sent two special delegations to discuss the details with top officials at the Presidential Office.
"At first, the arrangement for the visit was discussed through both Taiwan and Indonesia's presidential offices, and after the major details had been decided on, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also got involved," Wu said.
Wu refused to identify the Indonesian officials who were in charge of the negotiation but admitted that Megawati's husband had played a very important role to help facilitate the plan.
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