Taipei, March 29 (CNA) President Ma Ying-jeou and legislators urged the United States to sell Taiwan advanced weapons, including F-16 C/Ds fighter jets and submarines, in meetings with a former U.S. official Tuesday.
"The people of Taiwan will feel secure and confident to continue Taiwan's engagement with China on a variety of issues" if the U.S. approves the arms sale, Ma told former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.
Armitage, who served from 2001-2005 during the George W. Bush administration, is heading a delegation of security experts and think tank scholars on a visit to Taiwan.
In his meeting with Armitage, Ma expressed appreciation to the administrations of Bush and incumbent U.S. President Barack Obama for their approval of defensive weapons packages and their support for Taiwan's engagement with China.
Over 80 percent of the people of Taiwan supported maintaining the status quo in cross-Taiwan Strait exchanges, Ma told Armitage, and his China policy has been in line with the mainstream public opinion.
"We will neither speed it up nor slow down purposely, " Ma said, referring to the development of bilateral relations between Taiwan and China.
Taiwan intends to make nuclear safety a major topic on the agenda of its negotiations with China in the future, the president told Armitage.
Ma also hoped that improvements would be made in Taiwan's negotiations with the U.S. on a visa-waiver program, extradition agreement and on trade issues under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA).
Lin Yu-fang, a legislator of the ruling Kuomintang, said during Armitage's visit to the Legislative Yuan that he could not understand why the U.S. had been reluctant to approve the sale of F-16 C/Ds and submarines given that Taiwan's legislature had reached a consensus on the issue.
Armitage said that the U.S. arms sale to Taiwan had many hurdles to clear in the past and has always been a complex issue, but he hoped that "our Taiwan friends don't judge the U.S. (commitment and support) by one issue."
The senior politician also met Mainland Affairs Council Minister Lai Shin-yuan Tuesday and was scheduled to leave Taiwan Wednesday.
The visiting delegation, most of whom served in former Republican administrations, will carry on without Armitage until April 2.
The delegation will be led by Randall Schriver, a former deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs who is now president and chief executive officer of the Project 2049 Institute, a think tank focused on Asia-Pacific affairs. (By Chris Wang) Enditem/ls