“Taiwan-Israel Relations: A Strategic Outlook”

Good morning. Ladies and gentlemen, the paper I am going to read was originally prepared by Dr. Fou Go Liu who is the Chairman of the Research Planning Board due to some other engagement he couldn’t make the trip to come to Herzliya so I am going to read the paper for him.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I want to thank the Conference organizers for inviting me to join you here at Herzliya this year and for arranging this session. It shows tremendous foresight to provide this opportunity to think creatively about a long term development of Israel's foreign policy, and I am, of course, particularly pleased that you have seen fit to include my country, Taiwan, among the possible areas to explore. I heartily agree that there is much room for future cooperation for our countries and I submit that Taiwan could even become a key partner for Israel in the years to come. As you are all aware, the East Asian region has become one of the main centers for gravity of the global economy. Indeed, it is currently the source of the largest part of global growth, therefore the political and the strategic significance of our region has been rising rapidly in recent years and this trend is likely to continue. Therefore it is apparent that Israel should try to develop closer ties to the region to balance the really close ties with the US as well as with Europe. For a medium size country it is necessary for Israel to think strategically about its approach to the region and choose its partners carefully. Taiwan and Israel established representative offices in Tel Aviv and Taipei some 10 years ago. We have had some success in promoting the relations and the cooperation for our mutual benefit. Let me now make the case for taking the relationship for the next level for Taiwan to be one of Israel's copartners in the Asian region from economic, technological, political, social, diplomatic and a security perspectives.

First, economical and technological starting with the economical sphere, Taiwan and Israel have both developed repeatedly and both of us can claim to have made economic miracles. More interestingly, we have followed similar economic models. First – we early on opted to follow free market principles … development models once so popular in much of the world and have built open trade oriented economies. Second – we have placed special emphasize on human resources and education with which we have successfully overcome the resource constraints. Third – we have fostered freewheeling entrepreneurship and the core of both of economies is flourishing small and middle enterprise sector. Fourth – we have paid special attention to high technology and science based industries and our success in this field has become our hallmark in global markets. Indeed, both of our economies have been classified by the World Economic Forum as "core technology innovating economies".

Speaking of the World Economic Forum, I might mention that in his latest report Taiwan rose from 6th place to 5th in his ranking of growth competitiveness, which is a significant vote for confidence in our economic prosperities. By happy coincidence it turns out that tech sectors our two countries are more complimentary than overlapping. Taiwanese companies excel in manufacturing especially of hardware, being in fact the fourth largest producer of IT equipment in the world. Israel boast world class basic research and is a major center for innovation in software. With such a similar level of development as well as economic structure because business, culture and … complimentarity Taiwan should be perfectly positioned to be Israel's best business partner in Asia so far in 2002 we have reached a level of two-way trade of .66 billion US dollars including .26 billion US dollars of Taiwanese export to Israel and .34 billion US dollars of Israel's export to Taiwan, that means Taiwan is in deficit status. I am confident there is much room for expansion for great mutual benefit.

Second, political - in the political realm, the consolidation of Taiwan's democratization, especially since the first ever transfer of power in 2000 means that we can take our place alongside Israel as a full fledged vibrant democracy. We share the basic political values of freedom as we are the common understanding of how countries should be run. Importantly, both our countries are located in regions that are still relatively hostile to freedom and we have to build a standard of democracy in the face of this hostility. Although our democracy is younger than Israel's we are working hard to deepen it. We will hold our next presidential election in March 2004, and Parliamentary election at the end of next year, we are also working to draft our new constitution to replace the current one which was enacted under dominant parties system in 1947. Especially since our first ever transfer of power in 2000 we have found the constitution is not well suit for genuine multiparty democracy and there are many institutional debts such as proper checks and the balances, which require fixing. In addition our Parliament has just passed a law allowing the people to exercise their rights to referendum. These steps will increase the competitiveness of our policy making. Even more important to ensure that our people are taking the reins of power of sovereign citizens I think all Israelis can appreciate that.

Third, social - the Taiwanese people in general hold a very positive view of Israel, they tend to admire your courage in creating a new homeland building a democracy and standing tall in the face of so many threats. In some ways it is a role model for us since we also have had to learn to strive under a great threat. Your achievements in making the desert bloom and nowadays in high tech innovation are also well-known and held in high regard. The ancient Jewish culture is also very much respected. Mentioning all this because it means that cooperation among our two peoples has the solid social foundation and that Taiwan, especially now we have a free and a lovely society is so very welcome place for Israelis to walk or live, I dare to say it is more congenial and safe than almost any place in Asia.

Fourth - diplomatic. In the diplomatic realm our two countries also share many striking similarities. First – we share the same basic principles of diplomacy, our foreign policy is based firmly on the three intervene themes: of peace and security, economic prosperity and democracy and human rights. I believe these are your goals as well. Second, we are islands of democracy in our respective regions and we have faced many obstacles in participating in regional, forums and organizations. Third, although thankfully Israel was never expelled from the United Nations and its organizations and is able to exercise its proper full rights as a member not less we share political difficulties in relying on the UN for support.
This leads to my final point in this area which is that both of our countries have special relationship with the United States, which has long provided more and more genuine political support for both of our countries than any other major country. Indeed, many of our best friends in Washington are in fact the same people, as I believe today we also have some very good friends from the United States here. Of course we are all very appreciative of the commitment of the American people to democracy and freedom but it does behold both of our countries to build on that special relationship and try to develop even more the base of foreign relations a better way than to … more amongst ourselves past a three way configurations with the United States.

Fifth -security. In the security realm of course both our countries face ongoing serious threats to our existence from much larger neighbors. This is a fundamental commonality with obscurity our democratic system and our whole way of life remain at risk. Moreover, in order to defend ourselves we rely on developing more advanced military technology without which we face the risk of being overwhelmed by our numerous adversaries. I believe the phrase used here is "maintain a qualitative edge". In addition, our special relationship with the United States have … as our primary supplies of military hardware. For the latter these … our military systems are basically compatible. They speak a common language, this could be the basis of cooperation as well. During the first Gulf War a Taiwanese company, as usual a small startup company named Miko Electronics Technology Inc. – MTI, made its reputation when CNN journalist used his portable satellite communication equipment TCS, light, MTI specialize in …. transceivers and incorporates in original design, manufacturing … network system of US, however, it not turns out that terrorists who use that advantage to off this new technology to avoid being tracked by the US, therefore upon US advice we have control sales of this technology to the Middle East. I cite this example to illustrate and that although Taiwan used to receive military aid from the US now we can offer our help in advanced technological control to fulfill the responsibility towards toward the global peace.

Finally, a word about terrorism. Taiwan in the past had not paid much attention to this issue for the simple reason that we have never had terrorism on our soil. The tragic events of September 11th 2001 have changed that attitude. 7 of our citizens lost their lives in NY, along with the thousands of innocent victims from around the world. In addition two more of our citizens perished in the bombing on the island of Bali in October 2002. The events have brought home to us how we are part of the global village, how we can not remain aloof from events, even in relatively distant parts of the world but must walk together to eradicate terrorism from wherever may developed. As a result we have offered strong support for the war on terror including the campaign against the Taliban and the war to topple Saddam Hussein. We have also taken strict action to track financial flaws to prevent terrorists from laundering their money through Taiwan. We are working to prevent proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in conjunction with the US … proliferation security initiative which announced by President Bush in Poland in May, although we are not a member of the 11 country grouping in early August we took one of the first concrete steps by detaining a North Korean … 150 barrels of phosphorous pentasulphate which can be used to make chemical weapons. In addition to our determination with assist the global efforts against terrorism, this incident also demonstrate the strategic location of Taiwan along the most important sea lanes of communication in East Asia, Taiwan's commitment to the war on terror is critical to regional security. I believe anti terrorism and anti proliferation of areas where we may find new fruitful areas of cooperation with Israel, for example we could profit greatly from your expertise in terms of how to prevent and counter terrorist acts. In short, in conclusion, when Israel is looking for its true friends in the Asian region I am confident that Taiwan will rank near the front. We look forward to expanding our cooperation and working together for democracy and peace and prosperity. Thank you very much.