President Ma meets founder of Global Philanthropists Circle Peggy Dulany Rockefeller
15 Feb. 2012
President Ma Ying-jeou met on the morning
of February 15 with Peggy Dulany Rockefeller, the founder of the Global
Philanthropists Circle. The two exchanged opinions on a broad range of
topics, including cross-strait relations and Taiwan-US relations.
The president remarked that Ms. Rockefeller is an important member of the
Rockefeller family. She maintains considerable influence in the
international political and economic arenas, and is involved in a wide
variety of public service and charitable interests. Ms. Rockefeller has
founded a number of internationally influential organizations, one being the
Synergos Institute, created in 1986 and headquartered in New York. She
serves as the chair of this organization, which maintains contact with
dozens of nations throughout the world.
President Ma mentioned that in 2001 when he was serving as Taipei City
mayor, he was invited to Tarrytown, New York to attend a conference on the
trilateral relationship among Taiwan, the United States, and mainland China.
He said that participation in this event provided him with many ideas that
he would ultimately use to improve cross-strait relations. The president
stated that since he took office over three years ago in May 2008, his
administration has made every effort to strengthen relations between Taiwan
and mainland China, and this has lowered tensions in the Taiwan Strait. To
date, the two sides have signed 16 agreements. Follow-up talks are currently
being held on one of the agreements – the cross-strait Economic Cooperation
Framework Agreement.
With regard to progress in Taiwan-US relations, the president said that
towards the end of last year, US Agency for International Development (USAID)
Administrator Raj Shah and Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel B. Poneman made
visits to Taiwan. In addition, the US government announced that it had
nominated Taiwan as a candidate nation for the US Visa Waiver Program (VWP),
and the president expressed his hope that Taiwan will formally be granted
entry into the VWP in the second half of this year. The US government in
September of last year also announced that it would sell Taiwan a package of
defensive weapons, including kits to upgrade Taiwan's fleet of F-16A/B
series fighter jets. This will further enhance Taiwan's ability to defend
itself, and the sale of these arms also gives Taiwan greater confidence to
engage in further negotiations with mainland China in the future. In
addition, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in November of last year
during the APEC meetings in Honolulu emphasized the strong relationship
between the United States and Taiwan, stating that Taiwan is an important
security and economic partner of the United States. President Ma said her
description was quite apt.
President Ma specially expressed his gratitude to the United States for
supporting Taiwan's efforts to participate in the activities of the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the International Civil
Aviation Organization, and for striving to enhance substantive relations
between the two sides. Lastly, President Ma said he hopes that this visit
will help Ms. Rockefeller better understand the close and friendly
relationship between Taiwan and the United States, and that she will take
Taiwan's friendship back with her to America.
Ms. Rockefeller was accompanied to the Presidential Office by Deputy
Minister of Foreign Affairs Tung Kuoyu (董國猷) to meet President Ma. Also
attending the meeting was National Security Council Deputy Secretary-General
Chih-kung Liu (劉志攻).