President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) will hold a teleconference with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a -Washington-based US think tank, on May 12, Taiwan’s representative office in the US capital announced on Thursday.
The one-hour conference will focus on US-Taiwan relations in a new era, said Leo Lee (李澄然), Taiwan’s deputy representative to the US.
To increase interest in the event, the country’s representative offices in Boston, New York, Miami, Atlanta and Chicago — will invite local academics and experts to watch the teleconference and join discussions via the Internet, Lee said.
CSIS president and chief executive John Hamre will moderate the conference, which will take place from 8:30am to 9:30am US time.
Lee also addressed a proposal that Taiwan and the US should establish a new platform for strategic dialogue, saying the new channel would focus on strategic and security issues and be different from the existing Monterey Talks, which concentrate on military topics.
The strategic dialogue proposal was revealed by Deputy Minister of National Defense Andrew Yang (楊念祖) during his recent trip to Washington. Yang told reporters after attending a seminar on Wednesday that the geopolitical climate surrounding Taiwan had changed.
Pointing to increased interaction across the Taiwan Strait, conflict between the two Koreas, energy concerns and the nuclear crisis in Japan, Yang said Taiwan wanted a high-level dialogue that could help both parties maintain regional peace and stability.
Yang said such a platform would allow officials on both sides to engage directly on strategic and security matters.
Lee said the US has yet to respond to the proposal.
Technical details concerning the new platform, including what level of officials would participate in the dialogue and the content of such talks, could be discussed after a positive response from the US, Lee added.
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