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Taiwan hopes to strengthen ties with U.S.

ROC Central News Agency

2013/01/10 22:34:47

Taipei, Jan. 10 (CNA) The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Thursday it hopes limitations in relations between Taiwan and the United States will be eliminated so that bilateral ties can be strengthened.

Bruce Linghu, director-general of the ministry's Department of North American Affairs, said one of the most important issues in U.S.-Taiwan relations is Washington's commitment to providing defense weapons for Taiwan.

He said Taiwan was encouraged that U.S. Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) promised during his visit to Taiwan from Jan. 8-9 that the U.S. will continue to sell weapons to Taiwan and implement the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act.

During the visit by Inhofe and a 19-member congressional delegation he led, he promised that the U.S. will sell Taiwan 30 Apache attack helicopters this year, 60 Black Hawk transport helicopters in 2014, and Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missiles in 2015.

Linghu said that in terms of bilateral relations, "some unnecessary limitations should be gradually removed" to improve ties.

After all, he said, the global, regional and cross-Taiwan Strait situations are constantly changing.

Linghu called for visits by senior officials between the two countries and deeper trade ties, and expressed hopes that the two countries can reach an investment protection pact and free trade agreement in the future.

Inhofe, a co-chair of the Congressional Taiwan Caucus, is a member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. He was also recently elected by Republican Senate Armed Services Committee members to be the panel's new ranking member.

Meanwhile, Taiwan's opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) complained that the ministry failed to inform the party of Inhofe's visit beforehand and the party was therefore unable to schedule a meeting for Inhofe and DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang.

In response, Linghu said the Congressional delegation's schedule in Taiwan was arranged in accordance with the delegates' requests and they had not asked to meet with local opposition leaders.

The ministry did not inform other political parties either, including the ruling Kuomintang, he said.

(By Emmanuelle Tzeng and Jamie Wang)