Taipei [Taiwan], January 2: Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen on Monday called on China to share common responsibilities to maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and the region, in line with the the current consensus of the international community.
"We hope that the two sides will resume healthy and orderly exchanges as soon as possible," Tsai said during her New Year's address.
Tsai said Taiwan also wants to jointly find a way for the two sides to coexist over the long term through the principles of "peace, parity, democracy, and dialogue."Facing the renewed conflict between the democracy and authoritarianism around the world, Tsai said that "Taiwan's only choice in the future is still to continue to uphold democracy and safeguard peace."
In 2024, Taiwan's total defence budget will reach a record high of 600.7bn Taiwanese dollars ($19.58bn), she said.
"We must show our determination and protect the democratic and free way of life, so that the world can further confirm that Taiwan is an indispensable and key player in global democratic peace, not a dispensable part," Tsai said.
During a news conference, Tsai told reporters that Taiwan's future relationship with China will be jointly decided by all Taiwanese people through a democratic procedure because "Taiwan is a democratic country."
China cut off all communication with Taiwan's leadership in June 2016, one month after Tsai of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party took office.
Presidential and parliamentary elections are scheduled to be held on January 13. Tsai, re-elected in 2020, is ineligible to seek a third term.
Taiwan has had an independent government since 1949, but China considers the self-ruled island its territory.
Source: Qatar Tribune
