何委員志偉：（10 時 24 分）主席、各位列席官員、各位同仁。Thank you, Ms. Chairperson. I wouldlike to invite Minister Joseph Wu, OK, to answer the following questions. Good morning, Minister.
吳部長釗燮：Good morning.
何委員志偉：I would like to carry out my interpellation in English today at the Foreign and NationalDefense Committee so that important information written in English will not be lost in translation.
主席：請稍待一下。
何委員志偉：是。
主席：因為我們議場的會議紀錄也要同時記錄……
何委員志偉：對，我會同步把……
主席：你沒有事先通知本委員會，我沒有準備會英語的議事人員做紀錄。
何委員志偉：我們會提供文字稿，已經準備好了，都印出來了。
主席：請外交部吳部長說明。
吳部長釗燮：主席、各位委員。我是沒有問題……
主席：主祕，可以嗎？
何委員志偉：我們同步都有文字會處理。
主席：可以嗎？
吳部長釗燮：我是都沒有問題……
主席：議事人員，可以哦？好。
吳部長釗燮：但是因為這個是我們中華民國的國會殿堂，所以要請主席來作裁示。
主席：好，那就繼續。
何委員志偉：謝謝。OK。Minister.
吳部長釗燮：Yes.
何委員志偉：The Passage of the TAIPEI Act in the US House of Representatives without objection,without objection, without any objection which is totally the great news for Taiwan last week.
吳部長釗燮：Yes.
何委員志偉：It was such an honor for me to witness this. And it makes a major progress of Taiwan-USrelations, ensuring Taiwan diplomatic space with domestic legislation. And the Act was even recognizedPresident Tsai as the President of Taiwan. So here's my question. I would like to express my gratitude tothe sponsor of the Act and the longest time, the longest friend of Taiwan, Senator Cory Gardner. Heactually visited Taiwan last year and our President Tsai showed him around in my aera, 大稻埕. So hereI strongly demand that MOFA invites him to Taiwan again for the inauguration ceremony in May andthanks him in person. So what's your response to that?
吳部長釗燮：Thank you very much for that question. Indeed, Senator Cory Gardner is a very good friendof ours and he is a very good personal friend of the President and mine as well. There are plenty ofopportunities for our diplomats in the United States to meet with him and there are also plenty ofopportunities for him to visit Taiwan. But I'm not sure whether this year is a good year for him. He isgoing to run for reelection, so this is going to be a very busy period of time. But we will extend theinvitation to him on behalf of you.
何委員志偉：Thank you very much. So will when the invitation be done? Can we do it as soon aspossible? I know he's a busy person, so I totally, eagerly asking your help on behalf of Taiwan to sendhim the invitation.
吳部長釗燮：Yes. Our DG for North American Affairs is right here. We will instruct our colleagues inWashing, DC right away.
何委員志偉：Plesase do so ASAP, OK?
吳部長釗燮：Sure.
何委員志偉：And in response to the TAIPEI Act, I wonder if Taiwan is ready to further strengthenTaiwan-US relations. In the Section 3 of the Taipei Act, Taiwan's official and unofficial partnershipswith countries in the Indo-Pacific region are stressed, but do we already have specific guidelines orplans for collaboration at hands?
吳部長釗燮：Yes. We have been working with the United States for quite some time...
何委員志偉：Right.
吳部長釗燮：Either in the Indo-Pacific or in the Western Hemisphere, and our Indo-Pacific strategy isworking very well with the US's Indo-Pacific stratedy. We are working with each other based on severalprinciples. The first principle is that the two sides follow the fundamental values of freedom, democracy,and the respect of human rights. And therefore, that makes us natural partners in reaching out to theinternational community. And the second principle is that Taiwan and the United States are workingtogether in trying to reach out to the Pacific countries or to the countries in the Western Hemisphere sothat Taiwan and US working together can benefit economically for these countries. And of course wewill continue to work together with the United States so that the countries I mentioned can continue tobenefit from our efforts.
何委員志偉：Thank you for the hard work. And the following one is about the coronavirus, OK? We areactually fighting against the outbreak of coronavirus but Taiwan is really doing pretty well. And we arereceiving praises and being emulated by countries hit by disease. Just a few days ago, President of Palauthanked Taiwan for assisting in combatting coronavirus. And I think, I do believe that, the whole worldbelieve that Taiwan's professionalism and capacity in public healthcare sure do great help to diplomacy.And other ministries can provide professional assistance in similar ways. Here's my question. I'd like toask Minister Wu： How are different ministries collaborating in terms of diplomacy and whatcooperation plans do we have this year?
吳部長釗燮：Appreciate it very much for this outstanding question. During this period of time, when thecoronavirus outbreak has become an issue for us to deal with, we have been working together with theCommand Center. And of course the Command Center has not only the Department of Health(Ministryof Health and Welfare), but also the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Labor, Ministry ofEconomic Affairs, et cetera. And we are working together on that platform to deal with issues that weneed to be worked on together with the Command Center, so that is working very well. For example,you mentioned about the Palau issue. When we received...
何委員志偉：Dr Wu, it caught my attention that CPTPP. We might have a chance to get in, right?
吳部長釗燮：Of course we have that opprotunity.
何委員志偉：So do we have confidence for this year or any other chances to be...
吳部長釗燮：I am not sure about this year.
何委員志偉：Right.
吳部長釗燮：CPTPP is a different issue. It's not adopted by all countries yet.
何委員志偉：Right.
吳部長釗燮：And therefore we are still waiting for that period...
何委員志偉：We still have two more countries that are actually having discussions in their domestic...
吳部長釗燮：There still are four more countries to adopt CPTPP. But before that, we are not able to applyfor the accession yet.
何委員志偉：I think I need further report about it. If we can, try to let me know what's your progress forthat, OK?
吳部長釗燮：Yes, I can tell you very briefly.
何委員志偉：Right.
吳部長釗燮：This is a period of time where we are not able to apply for the admission yet because theyare not open to new members. But we are collaborating with other countries for informal consultations.This is what is allowed. And I can tell you that the informal consultation process is being going verywill.
何委員志偉：OK, thank you. I am going to talk about Taiwan-Japan replations, OK?
吳部長釗燮：Japan?
何委員志偉：Taiwan-Japan, I'm sorry. The MOFA is pretty optimistic about joining the CPTPP, but ittakes time and takes efforts, too. So far, we are hoping for the best, and we are looking forward tohaving actual progress in having more interactions in terms of trading. However, Taiwan's situation isreally delicate. China is concerned about relations between Taiwan and Japan and keeps pressing, evenJapan and Taiwan are simply having good relations. And from this perspective, my question is： CanMOFA elaborate an attitude of Japanese government toward Taiwan?
吳部長釗燮：Well, you mentioned about China's attitude toward our relations with Japan...
何委員志偉：Yes.
吳部長釗燮：It's not just Japan. China is concerned about our relations with the United States, withEurope, and all the countries that do not have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
何委員志偉：Right, exactly.
吳部長釗燮：But we will work very hard to improve relations with these like-minded countries whetherChina likes it or not. And our relation with Japan is rather special. We have so many people visiting eachother. And the senior officials from Taiwan side care about our relations with Japan. By the same token,the Japanese senior officials also care about the relations with Taiwan. So that is a very good foundationfor Taiwan and Japan to improve relations further. But of course in the world of diplomacy, a lot ofthings are done in a very quiet way. So maybe you know, it's not appropriate for me to elaborate soclearly on Taiwn-Japan relations.
何委員志偉：OKK, I totally understand. Finally and last question：Reconnection to the very beginning ofmy question, I hope MOFA will ask and take serious consideration in inviting sponsor of the TAIPEI Actand other, let me mention, other supportive members of the Senate and the House, and friendly officialsto Taiwan before May 20th. Although many events maybe have been cancelled due to coronavirus,foreign guests will have more time to understand Taiwan and do more interactions. And I have to say wehave to let them know profoundly that Taiwan is totally trustworthy and worth supporting.最後還是期待、希望可以邀請這些台北法的相關提案人及友好的官員過來。
