President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is set to embark on an eight-day state visit to South America and the Caribbean today — his first overseas trip since taking office in May.
Ma will attend the inauguration of Paraguayan president-elect Fernando Lugo on Friday and Dominican Republic president-elect Leonel Fernandez on Saturday.
Ma and his 81-person delegation are scheduled to spend one night in Los Angeles before heading to Panama for a refueling stop en route to Paraguay. They will leave the Dominican Republic on Sunday and have a refueling stop in Austin, Texas, before heading to San Francisco for transfer. They are scheduled to arrive in Taiwan early next Tuesday.
Unlike his predecessors, Ma will take commercial — rather than special charter — flights. The president and his entourage are booked to take a commercial airliner en route to Los Angeles. They will fly to Panama, Paraguay and the Dominican Republic on a charter flight, which will then take them to Austin and San Francisco. They are scheduled to return on a commercial flight.
Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said yesterday that the use of commercial flights for segments of the trip would save taxpayers an estimated NT$30 million (US$962,200).
Wang said that while it was common practice for the heads of the five branches of government to see the president off at the airport under the Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) government, Ma had asked them not to come because he would leave during office hours and it would be early morning when he returns. Wang said he hoped the change would become the norm.
During the refueling stop in Panama, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Hou Ching-shan (侯清山) said Ma was scheduled to meet Panamanian President Martin Torrijos and at least one of his two vice presidents.
Ma will also have bilateral meetings with leaders attending the inaugurations in Paraguay and the Dominican Republic, Hou said, including the envoy of US President George W. Bush. Hou, however, emphasized that the meetings with the US representatives would occur “naturally” and that no special arrangement had been made. As for the transfers in the US, Hou said Ma would keep the transit stops simple and would not engage in any unrelated activities during the stops.
Hou said Ma would see some of his friends and that some “US friends” may telephone or come to see him, adding that the “US friends” included politicians, but he declined to say whether there would be any government officials.
Asked about Lugo’s threat to establish relations with Beijing once he takes office, Hou said Lugo did not specify what kind of relationship he was seeking. The ministry’s understanding was that the bilateral ties between Taiwan and Paraguay remained strong and would remain unchanged.
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