Two former senior US officials arrived in Taiwan yesterday for post-election talks and to underscore the US government’s “longstanding interest” in peace across the Taiwan Strait, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said yesterday.
The Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential candidate William Lai (賴清德), who won Saturday’s presidential election, is to take office on May 20.
A senior White House official last week said that, in a show of support for Taiwan, US President Joe Biden planned to send an unofficial delegation to Taiwan after Saturday’s elections.
Photo: CNA
The AIT yesterday said that former US national security adviser Stephen Hadley and former US deputy secretary of state James Steinberg would visit Taiwan.
“As we have done previously following a Taiwan presidential election, the US government has asked former senior officials to travel in their private capacity to Taiwan,” the AIT said, adding its US-based chair Laura Rosenberger was accompanying the duo.
The delegation is today to “meet with a range of leading political figures and convey congratulations from the American people to Taiwan on its successful elections, support for Taiwan’s continued prosperity and growth, and our longstanding interest in cross-Strait peace and stability,” the AIT said.
Photo: CNA
In other news, Japanese Representative Keiji Furuya, chair of the Japan-ROC Diet Members’ Consultative Council, Japanese Representative Yasushi Kaneko and Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association chairman Ohashi Mitsuo are in Taiwan to congratulate the Taiwanese public for the elections.
The two representatives and Mitsuo yesterday had separate meetings with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) at the Presidential Office Building in Taipei, and Lai at the DPP headquarters in Taipei.
Lai thanked the three for their trip highlighting the profound friendship between Taiwan and Japan.
The two countries are close democratic partners caring about regional peace and stability, and sharing common values such as democracy, Lai told Mitsuo, adding that he hoped to continue exchanges with Japan on economy, trade, net zero transition and innovation.
Japanese people understand the importance of the ties between Taipei and Tokyo, Mitsuo said, adding that Japan is looking forward to continuing to deepen cooperation and exchanges with Taiwan’s future government.
Mitsuo told Tsai that he is looking forward to working with Lai to further improve Taiwan-Japan relations, adding that the election result is an approval by Taiwanese people to Tsai administration’s policies.
Despite China’s various attempts to interfere in Taiwan’s elections, the nation elected its new leaders through democratic procedures, which was “sending an important message to the world,” Furuya said during the meeting with Tsai.
His council is to continue cooperating with the Taiwanese government to build a free and open Indo-Pacific region, he added.
All three Japanese representatives also expressed gratitude to Taiwanese for showing concern for their country after a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck the Noto region of Japan’s Ishikawa Prefecture on Jan. 1.
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