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Foreign Ministry takes U.S. report as reference

ROC Central News Agency

2008-02-24 18:42:20

    Taipei, Feb. 24 (CNA) The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will take as a reference a U.S. think tank report urging the United States to rebuild a bilateral agenda with Taiwan, and will continue to communicate with Washington, Ministry spokeswoman Phoebe Yeh said Sunday.

    Yeh was referring to a report titled "Strengthening Freedom in Asia: A Twenty-First Century Agenda for the U.S.-Taiwan Partnership, " released Friday by the U.S.-based American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research.

    The report suggests that Washington relax restrictions on high-level Taiwanese officials communicating directly with the U.S. government and that the two countries establish a task force governing U.S.-Taiwan defense relations.

    The report urges the United States to give priority to enacting a free trade agreement with Taiwan and not to succumb to Chinese pressure to snub Taiwan, while also suggesting that Taiwan lift a ban on investment in China.

    Yeh said the report stresses the importance of relations between the United States and Taiwan and that a more positive and productive bilateral agenda between the two sides should be forged.

    The report also expresses hope for smooth development of U.S.-Taiwan relations, Yeh noted.

    In her view, Yeh said, "the bilateral relations between the two countries rely on a solid and consolidated foundation, but there is still ample room for expansion."

    As the ministry has its own goals and methods for improving relations with Washington, Yeh said, it will continue to strengthen bilateral communication in addition to taking the report into consideration.

    The two main authors of the study -- Randall Schriver, a former deputy assistant secretary of state for Asia-Pacific affairs who now works in the private sector and Dan Blumenthal, a former Pentagon official-- are slated to release the report Feb. 25 at a seminar in Taipei. Foreign Minister James Huang will deliver a speech during the seminar, according to Yeh.

(By Y.L. Kao)

ENDITEM/J