President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday announced plans to visit the nation's allies in Central America during this presidential term as they celebrated the 138th anniversary of the Independence Day of Central America.
The embassies of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Honduras held a lunch banquet at the Regent Formosa Hotel in Taipei to mark the anniversary.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
"In my first term, I visited Latin America three times to build friendships with the leaders of our allies. I visited Central America again at the end of August," Chen told the attendees. "These trips show how much my government and I value our allies in the region."
"I will travel to Latin America again some time in the next three years," he said.
Chen said that people could not understand Central American democracies or their economic prosperity without personally visiting these countries.
"You feel the creativity of the land when seeing the passionate people who live there," he said.
Chen said the Second Democratic Pacific Assembly (DPA), organized by Lu last month, symbolized the firm friendship between Taiwan and its Latin American allies. Many dignitaries from the region attended the assembly.
"Our friendship overcomes the great barrier of the Pacific Ocean. Distance poses no problem to our relationships," he said.
Lu, who spoke after Chen, announced she would lead a delegation consisting of experts in agriculture, technology, culture and trade to Central America this Lunar New Year.
She said that she was planning to hold a regional forum affiliated with the DPA in Costa Rica during the trip.
Francisco Ricardo Santana Berrios, El Salvador's ambassador to Taiwan, said that after Central American countries gained independence from Spain 183 years ago, they had moved in the direction of democracy and a stable economy.
"I believe Taiwan's allies in the region will welcome visits by Taiwanese leaders," he said.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
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