Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe yesterday met Taiwan’s special APEC envoy James Soong (宋楚瑜) for 30 minutes on the sidelines of the two-day meeting the APEC leaders summit in Da Nang, Vietnam.
Abe told Soong that Japan and Taiwan share common values, close economic ties and people-to-people interactions, and that he looked forward to further strengthening their unofficial ties, according to a news release from Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Abe also said Japan would work to deepen the cooperation and exchanges with Taiwan on the basis of informal, but substantive relations, according to the news release.
Photo: CNA
It said Abe and Soong agreed that the two nations must continue to deepen their substantial links in a wide range of areas.
When Soong raised the issue of the latest developments in relations between Taiwan and China, Abe suggested that such matters be addressed peacefully through direct dialogue, the ministry said.
Abe also said he was committed to helping to maintain regional peace and stability, the ministry said.
Earlier in the day Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) posted a photograph on Facebook of him and his wife, Ho Ching (何晶), having tea with Soong and Soong’s daughter, Soong Cheng-mai (宋鎮邁).
Lee posted that he was happy to meet James Soong.
The People First Party chairman, speaking to the media on Saturday, said he had the opportunity to have “very good interactions” with US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, among others, during informal moments between summit events.
He said he would report to the government in Taipei before speaking more about the contents of those conversations, but said they had been held in an atmosphere of “great consideration.”
His meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) was “natural and friendly,” he said, but “this is not the occasion for cross-strait political talks.”
At a news conference on Saturday after the conclusion of the summit, he said his mission as Taiwan’s envoy was not to seek any diplomatic breakthrough, but to build trade and economic links.
He said he had taken part in an informal discussion among APEC and ASEAN leaders, which was held for the first time as part of the annual APEC summit, and the discussions helped to significantly advance the goals of Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy.
He said his discussions with ASEAN leaders also focused on economic and trade issues, and that he told them there was no need to take sides between Taiwan and China.
The discussions also extended to the leaders of Laos and Myanmar, he said.
In talks with Laotian President Bounnhang Vorachit, he said he stressed that Taiwan was aiming to deepen cooperation in agriculture and infrastructure construction, while in meeting with Burmese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi, he said Taiwan would like to boost economic and trade relations with Myanmar.
He said he also spoke with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and expressed Taiwan’s support for the UN Security Council’s resolutions to impose new sanctions on North Korea.
The Taiwanese delegation made a great effort at the APEC summit, James Soong said.
His delegation flew home yesterday and was greeted at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport by Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lee (李大維) and Presidential Office Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮).
Additional reporting by Reuters
Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has died of pneumonia at the age of 48 while on a trip to Japan, where she contracted influenza during the Lunar New Year holiday, her sister confirmed today through an agent. "Our whole family came to Japan for a trip, and my dearest and most kindhearted sister Barbie Hsu died of influenza-induced pneumonia and unfortunately left us," Hsu's sister and talk show hostess Dee Hsu (徐熙娣) said. "I was grateful to be her sister in this life and that we got to care for and spend time with each other. I will always be grateful to
REMINDER: Of the 6.78 million doses of flu vaccine Taiwan purchased for this flu season, about 200,000 are still available, an official said, following Big S’ death As news broke of the death of Taiwanese actress and singer Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), also known as Big S (大S), from severe flu complications, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and doctors yesterday urged people at high risk to get vaccinated and be alert to signs of severe illness. Hsu’s family yesterday confirmed that the actress died on a family holiday in Japan due to pneumonia during the Lunar New Year holiday. CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) told an impromptu news conference that hospital visits for flu-like illnesses from Jan. 19 to Jan. 25 reached 162,352 — the highest
TAIWAN DEFENSE: The initiative would involve integrating various systems in a fast-paced manner through the use of common software to obstruct a Chinese invasion The first tranche of the US Navy’s “Replicator” initiative aimed at obstructing a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be ready by August, a US Naval Institute (USNI) News report on Tuesday said. The initiative is part of a larger defense strategy for Taiwan, and would involve launching thousands of uncrewed submarines, surface vessels and aerial vehicles around Taiwan to buy the nation and its partners time to assemble a response. The plan was first made public by the Washington Post in June last year, when it cited comments by US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue
Suspected Chinese spies posing as Taiwanese tourists have been arrested for allegedly taking photographs of Philippine Coast Guard ships, local media reported. The suspected spies stayed at a resort in Palawan, where from a secluded location they used their phones to record coast guard ships entering and leaving a base, Philippine TV network GMA said on Wednesday. Palawan is near the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島) and other disputed areas of the South China Sea, where tensions have been on the rise between China and the Philippines. The suspects allegedly also used drones without permission and installed cameras on coconut trees in the
RSS