President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday urged Russia to establish air links and sign a free trade agreement with Taiwan, in a bid to strengthen bilateral exchanges and economic ties between the two countries.
The Government Information Office yesterday issued a statement highlighting the president's appeal after a front-page interview with Chen appeared in Vremya Novostei, a Moscow newspaper.
The story carried the headline "We are not opposing communism, nor fighting Russia," and was conducted by senior correspondent Alexander Lomanov, who visited Taipei earlier this month.
"Oppose communism and fight Russia!" was a decades-old slogan during Chiang Kai-shek's (蔣介石) rule from the 1950s to 1970s.
"The slogan may sound ridiculous and absurd now, but it was all people thought about at the time. We were told by our teachers that the Soviet Union was the `big brother' of the communist bloc. We even prepared to retake the [Chinese] mainland and eliminate the communist bandits," Chen said in the interview.
However, after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Taiwan soon established unofficial links with Russia. Ten years ago, Taiwan and Russia signed an agreement to set up representative offices in Taipei and Moscow.
In the interview, Chen also stressed the need for both countries to sign agreements to protect investment and avoid double taxation, in the face of declining bilateral trade due to the global economic recession.
Chen was particularly impressed by his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Saint Petersburg in 1995, when Chen visited Russia as Taipei City mayor. Putin was then vice mayor of Saint Petersburg.
"Of course, it was surprising that we were both elected president of our respective states a few years later. In 2000, both Putin and I respectively became the youngest president's in Russian and Taiwanese history," Chen added.
Chen is 52 years old and Putin is 49.
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