TAIPEI, Taiwan -- President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) arrived back in Taipei late Sunday and pledged that Taiwan will maintain its cooperation projects with its allies but that they will be carried out more efficiently and with a better chance of benefitting the both sides.
▲圖/翻攝自中國郵報
She said that Taiwan's allies which she has just visited approved of her administration's "steadfast diplomacy," which favors methods that are mutually beneficial by adopting bilateral dialogue instead of providing unilateral aid.
"In the future, the number of cooperation projects will not decline but the projects will become more efficient and have a better chance of creating win-win situations," she said.
Speaking at the airport, the president also said that any future cooperation projects should take the development of businesses and markets into consideration.
Her government will ask experts to visit Central America on fact-finding missions and encourage businesses to come up with strategies that can lead to win-win cooperation based on projects that Taiwan can work on with its allies, said Tsai.
She is back in Taiwan after visiting four of Taiwan's 21 remaining diplomatic allies: Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador.
The president also made a transit stop in Houston on Jan. 7 en route to Central America and another in San Francisco after concluding the official part of her visit in San Salvador Friday.
It was Tsai's second overseas trip as president since she came to office on May 20, 2016.
In late June, she was in Panama City for the opening of the Panama Canal expansion project and went to Paraguay for a state visit.