President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is scheduled to visit Africa early next year, sources at the Presidential Office said yesterday.
A ranking official at the Presidential Office said on condition of anonymity that Ma would visit the country’s African allies at the beginning of next year and preparatory work would begin as early as November.
If things go smoothly, Ma will visit all four allies on the continent, the official added. Taiwan’s four African allies are Burkina Faso, Sao Tome and Principe, Swaziland and Gambia.
PHOTO: SAM YEH, AFP
Ma had planned to visit Africa this month, but in May he decided to postpone the trip because the typhoon season begins this month and he was worried a typhoon could thwart his plans.
“It would be more appropriate to conduct the visit outside of the typhoon season,” Ma said at the time.
Since taking office in May 2008, Ma has made five state visits to the country’s diplomatic allies. The country has 23 allies spread around the world, with 12 in Central and South America, six in the South Pacific, four in Africa and one in Europe.
Ma conducted his first foreign visit in August 2008 to Paraguay and the Dominican Republic. He visited Central and South America again last year. One trip was in May, when he visited Belize, Guatemala and El Salvador. The other was to Panama and Nicaragua in June.
Ma has made two overseas trips this year. In January, he visited Honduras and the Dominican Republic and in March he traveled to the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Nauru, the Solomon Islands and Palau.
In related news, Ma, meeting with Swazi King Mswati III at the Presidential Office yesterday, said his diplomatic policy would stay the course.
Ma said he has made efforts to improve relations with China since he took office more than two years ago. Cross-strait detente has helped improve international relations and he had adjusted his foreign policy accordingly, he said.
Ma said his administration wanted to expand reconciliation across the Taiwan Strait to the international community. In other words, the two sides no longer needed to waste diplomatic resources on pinching each other’s diplomatic allies, and that such a policy helps not only refashion each side’s international profile and image, but also wins recognition from the international community.
Ma added that he liked to use resources to engage in diplomacy that is honest and humanitarian, as well as economically and culturally oriented.
Ma also touted the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) signed with Beijing last month, saying the “landmark accord” pushed bilateral ties to a new level.
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