Taipei, June 20 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian said on Tuesday he hopes the top leaders on both sides of the Taiwan Strait can hold a summit meeting without imposing any preconditions.
Chen made the call at his first post-inauguration press conference.
As the president of the Republic of China, Chen said he will abide by the provision of the constitution to safeguard the country's sovereignty, dignity, security and well-being.
On the other hand, Chen said, he is hopeful that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait can jointly cultivate an environment conducive for bilateral engagement under the principles of democracy and parity.
Hopefully, Chen said, mainland China can respect the free choice of the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait and jointly deal with the question of a future "one China."
Chen said he believes that the two sides can keep their differences while seeking a consensus and maximum mutual benefits. "I'm confident our two sides can jointly deal with cross-strait issues based on existing foundations," he said, adding that the existing foundations refer to conclusions and consensus reached in talks, contacts and negotiations between their two formally authorized intermediary bodies in the past.
Touching on Beijing's claim that both sides reached a consensus on its cherished "one China" principle during a 1992 meeting between Taipei's Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and the Beijing-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS), Chen said the two sides did discuss the "one China" issue, but didn't agree on the "one China" definition.
From Taiwan's view, Chen said, if there was a 1992 consensus, it meant that the two sides "agreed to disagree" on the "one China" definition.
Chen further said so long as the two sides have sincerity and goodwill and get down to talks, they will be able to find out mutually acceptable "one China" definition.
Noting that this is an era of reconciliation, Chen said he hopes the top leaders on both sides of the Taiwan Strait can draw inspiration from the just-concluded Korean summit and pool their wisdom and ingenuity to jointly "re-write and create history."
Chen said he would sincerely invite mainland Chinese President Jiang Zemin to sit down to talks without setting any premises or restrictions on time, place or form of the meeting. "Let us jointly create the 'moment of historic handshake' and accomplish the 'mission impossible' with wisdom and creativity," he urged.
Turning to domestic issues, Chen also called for reconciliation of major local political parties. The president congratulated his two main rivals in the March 18 presidential election Lien Chan and James Soong for their elections as chairmen of the Kuomintang and the People First Party, respectively.
Chen, a stalwart of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), said after the DPP formally endorses Frank Hsieh as its new chairman, he will invite Lien, Soong and Hsieh to the Presidential Office for reconciliation and discussion on major domestic affairs and cross-strait relations. (By Sofia Wu)
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