President Ma Ying-jeou met Thursday with a special delegation from the United States on his last full day in office.
The delegation included former US Trade Representative Ron Kirk, former Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, former State Department spokesman Alan Romberg, current chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Raymond Burghardt and current AIT director Kin Moy. The AIT is the de facto US embassy in Taiwan in the absence of official ties.
Ma told the delegation that Taiwan has held six presidential elections and is undergoing its third transfer of power from one political party to another. Ma called the election of Taiwan’s first female president, Tsai Ing-wen, a milestone in the history of democracy in the country.
Ma also said he hopes the US will assist Taiwan in joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership and support Taiwan’s efforts to build its own submarines.
"In 2001, then US President George W Bush agreed to sell eight submarines to Taiwan for defensive purposes. However there has not been much progress in that regard. Now we have taken measures to build our own submarines, and we hope that the US can provide assistance in the near future," Ma said.
Ma said Taiwan has maintained the cross-strait status quo during his time in office, a policy he summed up with the slogan “no use of force, no unification and no independence”. He said his landmark meeting with President Xi Jinping of China last year has led to a consensus on maintaining cross-strait peace.