A think tank designed to be the brains behind the country’s effort to become part of ASEAN will be established in the near future, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said after a two-day closed-door meeting.
The think tank will show that the administration is committed to boosting Taiwan’s presence in the region, MOFA spokesman Henry Chen (陳銘政) said.
“This serves as proof that we are not just paying lip service to the issue, but really taking action [to improve relations with ASEAN],” Chen said.
Ranking officials from government agencies such as MOFA, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the National Security Council attended a meeting led by Minister of Foreign Affairs Francisco Ou (歐鴻鍊).
For the first time, heads of representative offices in Indonesia, Thailand, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Singapore were asked to return to Taiwan to brainstorm on the best strategy to enter the organization, which by this time next year will be a common market.
“The meeting provides a good beginning to the integration of agencies on the establishment of a working network toward ASEAN,” the MOFA said in a press release.
In his address on Thursday, Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) alluded that Taiwan’s continued exclusion from the regional group, especially the common market, would put the country at a severe disadvantage, but Taiwan had many powerful bargaining chips that it can play in favor of its position.
Chen refused to divulge when the think tank would be inaugurated or who would head the group, except to say “the sooner the better” and that “someone with ample experience in ASEAN countries” would be at the helm.
It has been suggested that a former diplomat to one of the ASEAN countries would be appointed chief of the group.
When asked by the Taipei Times if the function of the think tank would be redundant because it might overlap with the recently established ASEAN task force operating under the Department of Asian and Pacific Affairs, Chen said the think tank would generate strategies, while the taskforce would execute them.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
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