Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) told Japan yesterday that while the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration sought to improve relations with Beijing, it continued to attach great importance to relations with Tokyo and Washington.
Chiang, who led a six-member KMT delegation to Japan on Monday for a three-day visit, made the remarks while delivering a speech before some 200 Japanese political and business representatives and reporters in Tokyo yesterday.
Chiang, a vice chairman of the KMT, said the KMT administration’s cross-strait policy was to create a win-win situation for the economies on both sides and pursue peace in the Taiwan Strait.
The international strategy was to support the US-Japan security treaty, maintain friendly relations with Japan and the US and contribute to prosperity and security in Asia, he said.
Chiang said the KMT administration’s goal in cross-strait relations was to ink an agreement on economic cooperation with Beijing, with the long-term goal of establishing a common market. The KMT government was also amenable to signing free-trade agreements with the US, Japan and ASEAN countries, he said.
Referring to President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) “three noes” — no unification, no declaration of independence and no use of military force — and pursuit of peace and security based on the so-called “1992 consensus,” Chiang told the audience that, under such a framework, the Ma administration would like to establish a military confidence-building mechanism with Beijing, end the arms buildup on both sides of the Strait, sign a peace treaty and build sustainable peace in the Strait.
In Taipei, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said he expected designated representative to Tokyo John Feng (馮寄台) to deal skillfully in negotiations over fishing rights with Japan and help improve Taipei-Tokyo ties.
During a visit by Feng to the Legislative Yuan, Wang said Ma’s appointment of Feng, a longtime Ma aide, meant that Ma took the nation’s ties with Japan very seriously.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Feng’s appointment last Tuesday night, nearly 40 days after the seat was left vacant by Koh Sei-kai (許世楷), who resigned in June.
Feng, a KMT member, has served as ambassador to the Dominican Republic and as the ministry’s chief of protocol. He was also director of international affairs during Ma’s presidential campaign.
Feng vowed yesterday to promote relations with Japan based on the achievements of his predecessors.
“Relations between Taiwan and Japan have grown stably over the past eight years. My predecessors Lo [Fu-chen (羅福全)] and Ko made very impressive achievements and I will spare no effort [to promote relations between Taipei and Tokyo] based on those achievements,” he said.
Asked about his priorities after his assumes office, Feng said he would rather not discuss them, as “many things are better left unsaid in diplomacy.”
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