Taiwan ready to discuss links

The government of Taiwan has been sincere and is ready to engage in talks with Chinese authorities on matters pertaining to direct links, Premier Yu Shyi-kun said yesterday. The two sides, however, need to make a breakthrough in efforts to resume the long-stalled cross-strait dialogue before real communications on direct links are started, Yu said. He also praised the performance of the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) over the past decade in accelerating exchanges across the Taiwan Strait. He added that it is hoped that the SEF will continue to carry out its mission and make contributions to efforts in facilitating cross-strait interactions. Yu said he could not speculate on when direct links will officially come into being as this hinges on how the authorities from the two sides interact.