President Ma Ying-jeou has called for Taiwan to pursue closer cultural cooperation with the island nations of the Pacific.
Ma was speaking Thursday at the International Austronesian Conference, an annual event organized by Taiwan’s Council of Indigenous Peoples. Taiwanese aborigines and many indigenous peoples of the South Pacific are speakers of Austronesian languages.
Ma said that many of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies are in the South Pacific region. Ma said that while Taiwan and the island nations of the Pacific have close cooperation in a number of areas, cultural cooperation should be promoted as well.
"We have cooperated in the areas of agriculture, environmental protection, solar power generation, and medicine, but there is still room for expansion in the areas of language and culture," Ma said.
Ma cited the special chapter on indigenous peoples included in the 2013 Taiwan-New Zealand free trade agreement as an example of efforts to expand cultural ties between Taiwan and the countries of the Pacific.