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President says national defense building should not be relaxed

ROC Central News Agency

Taipei, Sept. 2 (CNA) President Ma Ying-jeou said Tuesday that the government does not think the building of national defense should be relaxed, as the country must be well prepared for war although it does not want to provoke one.

The president made the remarks while addressing a rally ahead of Armed Forces Day Wednesday.

Ma said that the government is devoted to the improvement of cross- Taiwan Strait relations, and that a window of opportunity has opened for cross-strait peace.

"But one should not forget that China still has more than 1,000 missiles targeted at Taiwan, which poses a substantial threat to Taiwan's security," he said.

"There are threats and opportunities between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, " Ma said, adding that his government is making great efforts to "minimize the threat and maximize the opportunities."

"However, in deterring the threats, the nation has no reason to relax its combat readiness," the president stated.

He recalled that in a recent interview with the prestigious monthly magazine, Global Views, he said that although the Taiwan public wants cross-strait peace and a diplomatic truce between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, this should not be "a unilateral goal, but should be one shared by the two sides of the strait."

"If China is unwilling to call a diplomatic truce, then we will know of it and will immediately resume combat preparations," the president said. "The government is not advocating a truce in national defense building, but instead an end to war, although we have no fear of war and we will be well prepared for war even though we will not provoke one."

He said the government's goal is to build a modern, professional and reliable combat force to deter its enemies from launching an attack.

For this reason, the government will appropriate funds to buy the necessary weaponry so as to safeguard Taiwan's security and its sovereignty, he said. (By Lilian Wu) enditem /pc