NO PLANS TO SEND ENVOY TO U.S. OVER PRESIDENT CHEN'S REMARKS: MOFA
ROC Central News Agency
2006-02-07 14:42:41
Taipei, Feb. 7 (CNA) Minister of Foreign Affairs Huang Chih-fang said Tuesday that there are no plans to send an envoy to the United States to allay its concerns over President Chen Shui-bian's proposal to scrap the National Unification Council (NUC) and the National Unification Guidelines.
The communication work will be conducted in Taipei and Washington, respectively, Huang said. "If President Chen's remarks came as a surprise to the United States, Taiwan will heed its response and continue communications, " Huang said.
After President Chen said on Lunar New Year's Day that Taiwan should seriously consider scrapping the NUC, the United States expressed concern, urging President Chen to honor his "five noes" pledges, which include no declaration of independence and no abolishing of the NUC as long as Beijing has no intention to use force against Taiwan, during his inaugural speech in 2000 and again in 2004.
Tan Sun Chen, secretary-general of the Presidential Office, said in a major meeting Monday that the proposal to scrap the NUC is not an improvised one, noting that he heard the president speak of the idea twice before it was made public. The media also cited officials from the Presidential Office as saying that the abolishing of the NUC can be regarded as a near-term goal of President Chen in dealing with cross-strait relations.
Huang would not comment on the scrapping of the NUC, saying that his ministry will be in charge of communication with other countries in whatever policy the government has adopted.
The NUC, set up more than a decade ago by the former Kuomintang administration, advocates the eventual unification of Taiwan and China. Therefore, China has viewed the proposal to scrap the NUC as a move toward de jure Taiwan independence, which Beijing has threatened to stop by force.
(By Lilian Wu)
enditem/Li
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
