Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) request to visit the US next month has been approved, Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) said on Thursday.
A screening committee at the Presidential Office has reviewed the request according to the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法) and gave Ma the green light, because the risks to national intelligence and Ma’s personal safety are considered controllable, Huang said.
Citing an assessment by the National Security Bureau, Huang said the risks related to Ma’s personal security in the US are relatively low.
Photo: CNA
The government would provide all necessary assistance during Ma’s trip, he added.
The former president is to visit the US from Feb. 28 to March 11.
He is scheduled to give speeches to groups of academics around the country, including the Asia Society and the Council for Foreign Relations in New York, the East Asian Legal Studies Center and the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research in Boston, and the Brookings Institution in Washington.
The trip will be Ma’s second visit to the US since stepping down as president in May last year. He attended the Asian leadership forum at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana in November.
Prior to that trip, Ma’s application to visit Hong Kong in June last year was rejected for national security reasons. Instead of attending in person, Ma delivered a speech via a video conference call at the awards dinner of the Society of Publishers in Asia.
Ma yesterday said he would not meet with members of US President Donald Trump’s administration during his upcoming trip.
Ma made the remarks in response to reporters’ questions on the sidelines of a visit to the Xingan Borough office and Xinglong Police Station near his residence in Taipei’s Wenshan District (文山), thanking them for working on Lunar New Year’s Eve yesterday.
He said that he would visit several US think tanks, adding that he would release details about his itinerary after the Lunar New Year holiday.
Additional reporting by Sean Lin
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