Politics

Next six months crucial to US-Taiwan relations

• Publication Date：11/27/2009
• Source： China Times

Observers in Washington predict the next six months will be critical to determining the effects on Taiwan of U.S. President Barrack Obama’s recent mainland China visit.

The first item to consider is U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, one Washington insider stressed. He argued though Obama did not refer to the arms sales during his visit, the U.S. National Security Council’s Senior Director for Asian Affairs Jeffrey A. Bader, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James B. Steinberg, and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton have all reiterated in the past three weeks that the country’s foreign policy toward Taiwan “remains unchanged.”

The White House is likely to agree to the sale of less sensitive weapons to Taiwan next year, the insider said. The timing for announcing its decision would be such that it would not have any impact on the visit of mainland China’s leader Hu Jintao, he added. “For example, if Hu were scheduled to visit the U.S. in the second half of 2010, the arms sales decision would be announced in the first half of the year.”

According to sources familiar with the matter, Obama mulled over selling weapons to Taiwan a couple of months ago. However, as his administration was tied up with the Dalai Lama’s visit to the U.S. capitol and Obama’s trip to the Chinese mainland, a final decision was delayed.

Enhancing economic ties is another issue worth watching in the near future. Taiwan has paid close attention to when to resume the long-stalled trade and investment framework agreement talks and whether the U.S. will grant visa-free status to Taiwan soon.

The third item would be Taiwan’s international participation. Taiwan is working hard to participate in the International Civil Aviation Organization and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. “We need to watch the U.S. attitude on whether it will lend a hand to support Taiwan’s latest efforts to join these organizations,” one scholar cautioned. Bilateral trade would be enhanced if Washington sent cabinet-level officials in energy, transportation or commerce to Taipei, he added.

A source familiar with Taiwan-U.S. relations revealed Washington had briefed Taiwan officials on five occasions prior to President Obama’s mainland trip, rather than the three times reported in the media. There was an additional briefing following the signing of the U.S.-mainland China joint statement, the source said, due to the breadth of the document’s content and the fact that Taiwan was mentioned in the statement.

Another person close to the decision-making level noted the briefings provided by the U.S. were very detailed, a clear indication of positive relations. As Taiwan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Shen Lyu-shun said, “We should look not only at what the U.S. says, but also at what it does.” (LC-THN)