President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday stressed that the US, Japan and Taiwan should create a free trade area (FTA) and reconsider their economic and trade policies of investing in totalitarian China.
"We hope that the three countries can negotiate the establishment of an FTA, which would speed up the establishment of the economic coprosperity zone (經濟共榮體) of those democratic countries in the Asia-Pacific region," Chen said when receiving academics and former government officials from the US and Japan, in town to attend a closed-door seminar on the issue of a strategic dialogue mechanism between the three countries.
"Through it [the FTA], the three countries could effectively advance security and solidify the democracy and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific region, which are key elements to the success of the war on terrorism in the region," Chen said.
Security, democracy and economics are the three pillars of the region's peace and prosperity, he said.
"The US-Japan alliance, which has long been the basis of the region's security, has effectively demonstrated its function after the international community started anti-terrorist action in the wake of the Sept. 11 incident," Chen said. "A stronger US-Japan alliance is obviously in the best interests of the East Asian region."
Chen pledged that Taiwan would "throw its weight behind the United States in regards to the second phase of Washington's anti-terrorist actions." He said Taiwan would "play a more active role under the bilateral and multilateral cooperative framework of the US-Japan alliance."
As for the second pillar of the region's stability -- democracy -- the president stressed that Taiwan is willing to actively enhance cooperation between the three countries in order to create a "democratic alliance" of Asian nations.
Chen urged both the US and Japan to consider how best to help the region, in particular Southeast Asia, to avoid a repeat of the Asian financial crisis.
Chen also called attention to the China threat, saying the nation's quickly developing economy has drained a massive amount of capital and technology from Taiwan, Japan and the US, as well as from Southeast Asia.
Since returning from his 10-day diplomatic tour to Africa in early July, Chen has repeatedly promoted the government's "go south" investment policy, which was formed during the administration of former President Lee Teng-hui (
Among those attending the seminar are former Japanese Diplomat Hisahiko Okazaki, former Japanese naval commander Sumihiko Kawamura, John Tkacik of the US-based Heritage Foundation, former special assistant to the US Secretary of Defense James Auer, and Robin Sakoda, a former aide to US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.
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