Straits Exchange Foundation Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) will leave for Japan today on a three-day trip to reassure Japan that Taiwan does not favor relations with Beijing over Tokyo. Chiang, a vice chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), will lead a six-member KMT delegation.
The group is expected to meet with Taro Aso, secretary-general of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), and other top political and parliamentary figures to update them on the KMT administration’s stance on relations with Japan and China.
Chiang will represent President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in clarifying Taiwan’s firm stance on maintaining friendly ties with Japan, said KMT Legislator Lee Chia-chin (李嘉進), one of the four KMT lawmakers who will be accompanying Chiang.
PHOTO: CNA
The other members are KMT legislators Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞), Lee Fu-hsing (李復興) and Lin Yu-fang (林郁方), and Tsai Ming-yao (蔡明耀), head of the Committee on Japanese Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lee Chia-chin said.
It will be the second Taiwanese delegation to visit Japan within a month.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) returned home on Aug. 13 after reassuring Japanese officials that Taiwan’s diplomatic relations are not tilting toward China.
During their visit to Tokyo, Chiang and his group will also discuss fishing rights and the possibility of the countries signing a free trade agreement, Lee Chia-chin said.
The delegation is also expected to meet with several other key Japanese politicians, including former prime minister Shinzo Abe; Nobuo Kishi, an LDP member in the upper house of the Diet and Takeo Hiranuma, president of the Japan-ROC Dietmen’s Council.
Chiang, who studied in Japan, is scheduled to deliver a speech in Japanese on cross-strait relations and Taiwan’s economic prospects in Tokyo tomorrow, Lee Chia-chin said.
The delegation’s trip was at the invitation of the Japan Interchange Association, which is the quasi-official organization handling relations with Taiwan in the absence of official ties.
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