Ministry of National Defense (MND) spokesman Major General Yu Sy-tue (虞思祖) said yesterday that Taiwan had no timetable for conducting talks on confidence-building measures with China.
“We do not have any timeline for that issue at the moment,” Yu said.
Yu was responding to comments by Qian Lihua (錢利華), director of the foreign affairs office of the Chinese Ministry of Defense. Qian had said that Chinese officials were more than willing to discuss cross-strait confidence-building measures with Taipei.
Qian said Taiwan has yet to forge a substantive view on the matter and urged Taipei to coordinate with Beijing on the issue.
Yu said the government's cross-strait policy consists of three basic principles, with economics coming before politics, taking on easy tasks before difficult ones and focusing on urgent issues before non-urgent issues.
“The MND follows the government's policy toward cross-strait issues,” Yu said.
Yu said that the confidence-building measures were a goal, but the ministry would be conservative in implementing government policy.
“Such an issue cannot be rushed,” he said, adding that: “We will wait for the right moment.”
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
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