Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kun (江丙坤) said yesterday that it would be too early for the foundation and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) to set up offices on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
“We will not discuss the issue in the near future because we have been very busy negotiating the signing of the economic cooperation framework agreement [ECFA],” Chiang said in Taipei.
Chiang made the remarks after ARATS Vice President Zheng Lizhong (鄭立中) was quoted by China News Service as saying at a directors’ meeting in Beijing that ARATS would study establishing offices in Taiwan, while the SEF could set up offices in China.
Chiang said setting up offices on both sides of the Strait was a goal but the SEF and ARATS had not yet discussed any details. He declined to confirm whether the offices would be set up this year.
In response to ARATS Chairman Chen Yun-lin’s (陳雲林) comments that the two quasi-official bodies should discuss cross-strait cultural and educational exchanges in the next round of negotiations, Chiang said the two sides would not sign any such agreements during the next Chiang-Chen meeting.
The next round of cross-strait talks are scheduled for the first half of this year. Negotiations on an ECFA will be prioritized.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has promised that the executive branch will give the Legislative Yuan and the public an official update each month on the progress of the ECFA negotiations, which he said would help the public to better understand the agreement.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) had suggested “institutionalizing” the legislature’s monitoring of cross-strait issues by setting up a cross-strait affairs monitoring task force at the Legislative Yuan. DPP spokesman Chuang Shuo-han (莊碩漢) said the party would prefer Ma to agree to establish such a task force rather than ask those involved in ECFA policy formation and negotiations to provide regular briefings.
Additional reporting by CNA
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