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OPPOSITION HEADS KNOW ARMS PROCUREMENT PACKAGE HAS TO PASS: PRESIDENT

ROC Central News Agency

2005-09-28 20:41:30

    Basseterre, St. Kitts, Sept. 27 (CNA) Visiting Republic of China President Chen Shui-bian said Tuesday that a long-stalled arms procurement package has to be passed in the end, and opposition leaders and the United States know this "clearly."

    President Chen made the remarks in Basseterre, St. Kitts and Nevis, on the fourth stop of his five-nation diplomatic tour of Central America and the Caribbean, when he spoke to a group of Taiwan journalists covering his visit.

    He was referring to the three big-ticket items in the arms procurement package -- eight diesel-electric submarines, six Patriot PAC III anti-missile batteries and a squadron of 12 P-3C anti-submarine aircraft -- which has been stalled for more than one year at the legislature.

    The president's words came after the "pan-blue alliance" lawmakers of the Kuomintang (KMT) and the People First Party (PFP) used their majority to block the government's arms purchase bill from being put on the legislative agenda for the 30th time earlier in the day.

    The president said that former KMT Chairman Lien Chan, PFP Chairman James Soong, Legislative Yuan Speaker Wang Jin-pyng and KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou all know "clearly that the arms procurement package has to pass, " and that the U.S. also knows clearly the whole story of the long-stalled package.

    The president said that during his transit stop in Miami, Florida en route to Guatemala to embark on his diplomatic tour, he talked with an influential U.S. congressional leader by phone. "The congressional leader told me that he will meet with U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in the hope that the latter will send a letter to KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou to seek Ma's support for the arms procurement package," Chen said.

    The president said that he thinks the U.S. congressional leader should also write to PFP Chairman James Soong because Soong has played a key role in blocking the package from being placed onto the legislative agenda for discussion.

    Chen also said that his transit in Miami on Sept. 20 was the result of discussions with the United States.

    He said that the U.S. has its own "strategic considerations." Chinese President Hu Jintao visited the U.S. before Chen made his transit stop and both were treated as Asian leaders, the president said, adding that Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi would probably be the next to arrive in the States.

    He also said that his predecessor, Lee Teng-hui, wrote him a letter about Lee's upcoming visit to the United States, but the president stressed that Lee will not be representing the government or Chen.

    Reports have said that Lee will visit the U.S. next month. He will probably meet with Alaska Governor Frank H. Murkowski in Anchorage before flying on to New York, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles.

    Lee will give a speech at the National Press Club (NPC) based in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 20. He will also give a brief speech over a luncheon on Capitol Hill, reports said.

(By S. J. Tsai and Lilian Wu)

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