In an effort to strengthen Taiwan's international ties, Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Hung-mao (田弘茂) is to depart for Grenada tomorrow for a meeting with his counterparts in the region and subsequent discussions with think tank members in the US.
On Aug. 31, Tien is to attend the fifth meeting between Taiwan's foreign minister and its four allied nations in the Eastern Caribbean in Grenada. The countries are Dominica, Grenada, Saint Christopher and Nevis, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, according to a foreign ministry press release.
Tien briefed reporters on Friday about his intention to meet with liberal US scholars as part of his intention to obtain support for Taiwan from these experts.
Tien said these scholars, mainly stationed at Harvard University and some think tanks in New York, have been critical of US President George W. Bush's policy toward Taiwan and the Asia-Pacific region as a whole. Meetings with these experts and discussing Taiwan's policies with them, Tien said, would be indispensable toward reducing their misunderstandings and criticisms of Taiwan.
The two major think tanks Tien is scheduled to visit during his stay in New York are the National Committee on American Foreign Policy and the Council on Foreign Relations, Tien said.
Members of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, a major track-two organizer of talks between Taipei, Beijing and Washington during the past few years, would brief Tien on their findings from their latest trip to Beijing, Tien said.
A round-table meeting organized by the New York-based think tank was canceled because the media revealed that the meeting would involve participants from Taiwan, including Deputy Secretary General of the National Security Council Antonio Chiang (
The US permitted Tien to visit New York at a "sensitive" juncture in his term, since the annual UN general assembly meeting was scheduled to meet there in early September.
Tien said the US this year "is expected" to keep silent in the UN meeting regarding Taiwan's bid to rejoin the international organization, thus possibly leading countries such as the UK and France to do the same.
The US has opposed Taiwan's UN bid for the past two years. In 1999, the US took voiced opposition to Taiwan's membership for the first time, a move believed to be triggered by former president Lee Teng-hui's (
Last year, the US indirectly opposed Taiwan's bid by re-affirming its "one China" policy, its support for seeking peaceful solutions to cross-strait issues and its hope of seeing the cross-strait dialogue resume, said foreign ministry officials.
With the help of its foreign allies, Taiwan began a fresh campaign to regain the UN seat it lost in 1971. Taiwan has tried eight times to rejoin the UN.
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