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Ma meets Panamanian president during stopover

Hundreds of overseas Taiwanese wave the nation’s flag yesterday as they welcome President Ma Ying-jeou at the airport in Asuncion in Paraguay. PHOTO: CNA

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) held talks with his Panamanian counterpart Martin Torrijos on Wednesday in Panama City during a refueling stop en route to Paraguay.

“In the past, the heads of the two countries seldom had a chance to talk like this. There is a warming in relations between Taiwan and Panama,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Francisco Ou (歐鴻鍊), who was also present at the meeting, told the press.

Panama, one of the most economically and militarily strategically significant countries in the world because of the Panama Canal, has been at the center of speculation about countries that might switch recognition from Taiwan to China.

Next year will mark the centenary of diplomatic relations between the two nations that established ties in 1909, but relations cooled visibly after Torrijos assumed office in May 2004.

It was reported that Torrijos had been actively seeking to establish official ties with China.

Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) made a trip to Panama in August 2004 for Torrijos’ inauguration, but his subsequent requests for a stopover en route to Latin America in 2005 and last year were both rejected by Torrijos.

Taiwan had also failed to obtain a positive response from Panama in 2004 when seeking to participate in the Panama Canal Expansion project — one of Torrijos’s campaign promises.

Torrijos last year invited Beijing to aid in the expansion of the Panama Canal.

“It’s true that Panama sought Chinese businesses to invest in the project, but Torrijos told Ma that he welcomed and would invite Taiwanese businesses to take part in the expansion plan,” Presidential Office spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said.

Ma told Torrijos that he was impressed with the plan when visiting the Panama Canal Zone five years ago as Taipei mayor and that he hoped the canal expansion project could be opened to Taiwanese businesses, Wang said.

Wang described the atmosphere of the meeting, conducted in English, as “harmonious,” saying that Ma and Torrijos sat on a sofa for a private chat after the formal meeting.

During the one-hour meeting, Ma spent most of his time elaborating on his “diplomatic truce” idea to Torrijos and they also exchanged opinions about energy conservation.

Panama, like Taiwan, imports nearly 100 percent of its energy.

Based on the government’s communications with Torrijos over Ma’s trip, Ou said that relations between Taiwan and Panama remain “stable.”

Ou said that Taiwan had asked for a transit in Panama, and then Torrijos offered to hold talks.

Also present at the meeting were National Security Council Secretary-General Su Chi (蘇起), Taiwan’s Representative to Panama Hou Ping-fu (侯平福), Chairman of the Economic Planning and Development Council Chen Tian-jy (陳添枝) and John Feng (馮寄台), a diplomatic consultant to Ma.

The five representatives accompanying Torrijos were his first vice president Samuel Lewis Navarro, who doubles as foreign minister, Minister of Commerce and Industry Carmen Gisela Vergara, the minister of the interior, a consultant to Torrijos and a legal consultant to Panama’s ministry of foreign affairs.
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