President-elect Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday rejected President Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) invitation to attend a military exercise to be held by the National Security Council between April 25 and April 27.
The drill, code-named Yushan, is held annually to simulate crisis scenarios.
Ma’s spokesman Luo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said that Ma’s schedule was fully booked for the dates in question and he would not be able to accompany the president. Luo declined to specify what events Ma had scheduled.
Luo said that it was the government’s duty and obligation to hold the drill, regardless of Ma’s attendance.
The Presidential Office yesterday expressed regret that Ma would not attend.
An official from the Presidential Office, who wished to remain anonymous, said it was unfortunate that Ma had declined the invitation because he would miss an opportunity to learn about the operations of the national security system.
The drill will proceed as scheduled, with or without Ma, the official said.
The Presidential Office began power transfer procedures following a meeting between Chen and Ma on April 1 and between Ma’s campaign manager Chan Chun-po (詹春柏) and National Security Council Secretary-General Mark Chen (陳唐山) on April 3, the official said.
The Presidential Office would provide all necessary assistance to the president-elect and vice president-elect, should they have any requests concerning information on national defense, cross-strait relations or foreign affairs, the official said.
Although Ma will not attend the Yushan military drill, the official said, there were other channels available for him to learn about the nation’s national defense, as well as relations with China and other countries.
Meanwhile, Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday said she hoped Ma would reconsider the invitation to observe the military drill.
Lu said she proposed at a high-level military meeting that the Yushan drill be rescheduled to accommodate Ma.
Lu said she did not know why Ma would not attend the event, adding that national security was an important matter that required in-depth knowledge.
In related news, Ma yesterday paid a visit to former Control Yuan president Fredrick Chien (錢復), also a former foreign affairs minister, to discuss cross-strait issues and the Control Yuan’s functions.
Ma said that he agreed with Chien that cross-strait relations were key to the nation’s foreign affairs policies and that improving the cross-strait relations would help solve many of the diplomatic difficulties experienced by the government.
“Most of our diplomatic problems come from the other side of the Taiwan Strait. We need to solve these issues from the roots,” Ma said yesterday after the 50-minute meeting with Chien at Taipei Guotai Financial Center.
Commenting on the Control Yuan, Chien urged Ma to find people with virtue and talent to serve as members of the government’s watchdog body.
The seats of the Control Yuan have remained vacant since the term of the previous members expired in January 2005 because of a pan-blue boycott of the president’s nominees.
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