President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday that he hoped the latest appointment of new officials responsible for Japanese affairs would promote closer bilateral ties.
Ma made the remarks during a meeting at the Presidential Office with Japanese House of Representatives Vice Speaker Seishiro Eto and a Japanese delegation that is visiting Taiwan to commemorate the anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami that hit in Japan on March 11 last year.
Ma discussed the recent appointment of former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) -secretary-general Liao Liou-yi (廖了以) as Association of East Asian Relations chairman and former deputy foreign minister Shen Ssu-tsun (沈斯淳) as representative to Japan.
Liao, who has also served as Presidential Office secretary--general and interior minister, has a unique knowledge of Japanese affairs because his mother is Japanese, Ma said.
Shen is a veteran diplomat with 30 years of experience and supervised relations with Japan for the past three years, he added, dismissing concerns that Shen is relatively inexperienced in Japanese affairs, having mainly worked in the ministry’s North America division.
“The government expects Mr Shen to further extend relations between the Republic of China [ROC] and Japan,” Ma said.
He also stressed Taiwan’s efforts in helping with relief work after the dual disasters that ravaged parts of northeastern Honshu in March last year, and said Taiwan’s assistance in reconstruction work highlighted the deep friendship between the two nations.
Eto visited Ma last year to thank the government and people of Taiwan for their generosity in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami.
Eto and the Japanese delegation planted 101 cherry trees to represent Japan and 101 plum trees to represent Taiwan, marking the friendship between the two countries.
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