China & Taiwan promise increased cooperation

Ma Ying-jeou, seen here waving to supporters

TAIPEI — Taiwan aims to forge closer ties with Southeast Asia once it has signed a trade agreement with China, the island’s President Ma Ying-jeou was quoted as saying in a report Thursday.

Apart from North Korea, Taiwan is the only economy in the Asia Pacific region that has not yet signed a free-trade agreement with a country in the region, Ma told a group of scholars, according to the Economic Daily News.

“We have to work even harder to become a part of the economic cooperation in this region,” Ma said Wednesday.

Taiwan has previously said that it hopes a China trade agreement could mean a softening on Beijing’s attitude on similar pacts between the island and other economies.

China, Japan and South Korea are already involved in cooperation with the ten-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a mechanism known as ASEAN Plus Three, and Ma hopes to make that “ASEAN Plus Four,” the paper said.