TAIPEI: Taiwan and China have agreed to consider setting up liaison offices in yet another sign of warming ties between the former rivals, officials said yesterday.
The offices could be used to improve relations in areas such as trade, culture, education and emergency response, although no details have yet been specified.
The two sides agreed to discuss the proposal during a recent meeting between officials from Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation and its Chinese counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait.
“We agree that such representative offices will better serve people from the two sides of the Strait and facilitate exchanges,” the Mainland Affairs Council, Taiwan’s China policy decision-making body, said in a statement.
It added that specific details will be discussed in the next meeting of the two sides, on a date yet to be fixed. George Tsai, a political science professor at Taipei’s Chinese Culture University, said: “This will mark a milestone development in the cross-Strait ties.
“The ties will be less likely to move backward once the offices are set up.” AFP
