Obama’s top Asian advisers to visit Taiwan, MOFA says

Written by Writer on Thursday, November 13th, 2008

Obama’s top Asian advisers to visit Taiwan, MOFA says

Central News Agency
2008-11-12 01:09 AM

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday that several of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama’s top Asian policy advisers will visit Taiwan at the end of November to attend a seminar with local counterparts, an indication that the government has close contacts with Obama’s team.

“We maintain close contact with Obama’s national security team,” said Peiyung Michael Hsu, deputy director-general of the ministry’s Department of North American Affairs, at a regular press briefing.

“We hope that they have a clear understanding of the progress of cross-Taiwan Strait relations and issues such as the diplomatic truce, to which they are also paying close attention,” he added.

Hsu said the government has good relations with the U.S. think tank Brookings Institution, which employs several of Obama’s Asian policy advisers, including Jeff Bader, a former senior official at the U.S. State Department, and former American Institute in Taiwan Chairman Richard Bush.

Bush, along with Brookings Institution president and former Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, will head a delegation on a visit to Taiwan at the end of November to attend a seminar co-hosted by the U.S. think tank’s local counterpart the Epoch Foundation, according to Hsu.

Talbott, an expert on U.S. foreign policy, is on the list of possible “team players” in the State Department under the new Obama administration.