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Ma says low-profile trip aims to restore US trust

President Ma Ying-jeou waves as he leaves the Tocumen international airport in Panama City on Wednesday. Ma was in Panama to meet his Panamanian counterpart Martin Torrijos, and will attend the inauguration ceremonies of Paraguay’s elected president, Fernando Lugo, and Dominican Republican President Leonel Fernandez. PHOTO: EPA

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said the arrangements for his low-profile transit in the US were appropriate and were meant to restore mutual trust between Taiwan and the US.

Ma made the remarks to the press in a charter plane before it took off from the US en route to Paraguay for a state visit with a refueling stop in Panama.

Saying that he didn’t ask the US to allow him to make a stopover on the US east coast nor did he plan to engage in activities during the transit stops there, Ma added that he hoped he could repair the relationship between Taiwan and the US.

Ma said he followed whatever the US wanted in the arrangements for his transit, a remark that contradicted his administration’s previous statement that Taiwan had taken the initiative to keep the trip low-key.

Ma was seen in public just once during his stopover in Los Angeles when he waved to a group of Taiwanese expatriates waiting for him outside his hotel, with the rest of his time spent in the hotel making calls and receiving friends from the US.

Ma will make a short refueling stop in Austin and another transit in San Francisco on his way back to Taiwan from the Dominican Republic. Ma is to attend re-elected president Leonel Fernandez’s inauguration on Aug. 16.
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