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MOFA willing to help president-elect arrange U.S. visit

ROC Central News Agency

2008-04-03 19:34:56

    Taipei, April 3 (CNA) The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is very willing to help President-elect Ma Ying-jeou arrange a visit to the United States prior to his May 20 inauguration if Ma's office raises such a request, Minister of Foreign Affairs James Huang said Thursday.

    Huang made the comments during a legislative committee meeting while fielding questions from Kuomintang (KMT) Legislator John Chiang, who questioned whether MOFA was sitting idle and not helping Ma.

    Brushing aside Chiang's concern on the grounds that MOFA has not received any such request from Ma's office, Huang stressed that his ministry would definitely do its best to help the president-elect arrange a visit to the United States if he needs assistance in this regard.

    According to Huang, communications channels between Ma's office and MOFA have been set up after Ma's election victory on March 22 to prepare for and arrange the May 20 presidential inauguration ceremony, but Ma's team has not mentioned his hopes for a U.S. visit. "MOFA is not in a position to make any move regarding the issue without permission from Ma, " Huang said, adding that "it would be good if Ma could realize a U. S. visit to boost two-way relations before his inauguration on May 20."

    The minister, however, said that he could not judge whether or not Ma could make a visit to the United States, because the U.S. side has to weigh several factors.

    During a meeting last week with visiting American Institute in Taiwan Chairman Raymond Burghardt, Huang said that they did not touch on Ma's plan to visit the United States.

    Ma's aides said Wednesday that the president-elect's office is still negotiating with the U.S. side over his U.S. visit request.

    Ma, of the main opposition KMT, beat his ruling Democratic Progressive Party rival, Frank Hiseh, in the presidential race by a wide margin of more than 2.21 million votes, taking a record high of 7.65 million votes.

(By Flor Wang)

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