American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Chairman James Moriarty is in Taipei leading a delegation that is to engage in discussions with top officials on bilateral relations, security and the economy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
Moriarty and AIT Political-Military Affairs Director Matthew Tritle arrived on Monday and are to stay until Saturday, a ministry news release said.
This is Moriarty’s seventh trip to Taiwan since becoming AIT chairman in October 2016, it added.
Photo: CNA
Asked if a Taiwan-US free-trade agreement was on the agenda for Moriarty’s talks, Department of North American Affairs Director-General Vincent Yao (姚金祥) told a regular news conference at the ministry in Taipei that economy and trade issues have been of concern to both sides.
While the ministry hopes to resume bilateral talks this year under the Trade and Investment Framework (TIFA), Moriarty’s talks are expected to revolve around more general issues, such as security, the economy or other issues concerning both nations, he said.
The TIFA negotiations have been suspended for two years. The last one was held in Washington in October 2016.
Moriarty accompanied President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) during her stopovers in the US en route to Pacific allies in March, when she visited Honolulu, and in New York and Denver when she was on a state visit to Caribbean allies in July, showing the US attaches great importance to Taiwan-US relations, the ministry statement said.
In other news, Yao said the ministry has not yet decided whether to re-establish a representative office in Guam, after the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) on Sunday reported that the government had decided to do so.
In 2017, the ministry closed its representative offices in Guam, Saudi Arabia and Norway for financial reasons.
The government’s decisions on establishing or withdrawing a representative office are made according to the changing international situation and the development of bilateral relations, Yao said, without elaborating.
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