The Taiwan-Russia Association, the brainchild of the think tank Taiwan Institute of Economic Research, will be inaugurated in downtown Taipei on Saturday, sources said yesterday.
President Chen Shui-bian (
Taiwan Think Tank, established last December and regarded as an influential resource of the Chen administration, has also been involved in the creation of the association.
"The association will boost bilateral exchanges in the economic and trade, science and technology, cultural, academic and arts fields," a member of the association said.
"We want to organize a delegation to visit Russia via the chartered flight by China Airlines [to Moscow]," the source said.
Taipei-Moscow ties have warmed recently after the two sides agreed to unprecedented direct flights between the two countries, slated to take place in late August.
Taiwan's flagship carrier will operate the first chartered round-trip flight to Moscow on Aug. 24 and Russia's Transaero will begin its first round-trip flight to Taipei on Aug. 31, an Associated Press report quoted Transaero spokesman Sergei Bykhal as saying in Moscow yesterday.
Bykhal's remarks confirmed information revealed to the Taipei Times on Tuesday.
Guests from the Russian side, including former Russian economics minister Oleg Lobov, have also been invited to address the opening of the new association, the source at the Taiwan Think Tank said.
A CNA report filed from Moscow on Tuesday said that Lobov, who is also chairman of the Moscow-Taipei Economic and Cultural Coordination Commission, left for Taipei on Tuesday for the inauguration of the new association.
Other Russian liaison officers will also take part in the ceremony, including Vladislav Verchenko, director of the commission's Taipei office, and Alexander Bimkin, the commission's deputy director in charge of business affairs, CNA reported.
Lobov told the wire service prior to his departure that during his visit to Taipei, he was eager to meet and persuade Taiwanese business leaders to cement their investments in Russia.
He highlighted the real-estate market in Russia and the establishment of top-end business clubs in Moscow as the best investment targets.
Next month's flights would mark the first time in the history of Russian aviation that there have been non-stop flights between Moscow and Taipei.
Bykhal also told the press that the airlines were hoping to start direct regular flights by the end of this year.
Russia's disapproval of a clause regarding the mutual exemption of income tax has been the biggest obstacle to the signing of an aviation pact between Taiwan and Russia, Minister of Foreign Affairs Eugene Chien (
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