Tea and pastries after making history: Taiwan’s president thanks Singapore for hosting historic presidential summit with Xi Jinping
Taiwan’s president exchanged messages on social media with Singapore’s prime minister after his historic summit with Xi Jinping in the city state on Saturday.
“Thank you, my old friend Prime Minister Lee for your hot tea, tasty pastries and warm welcome,” President Ma Ying-jeou wrote on Facebook. “Glad that we finally had a chance to sit down and catch up on the Ma-Xi meeting at the Shangri-La Hotel that just ended.
“Singapore has played a vital role in facilitating and witnessing peaceful developments across the Taiwan Strait. Without you and your father, none of this could have happened,” he told Lee Hsien Loong, who is the son of the city state’s founding father Lee Kuan Yew.
Prime Minister Lee had earlier posted: “Caught up with President Ma Ying-jeou over tea this evening. Glad his meeting here went well. Hope this will lead to greater stability and prosperity for the region.”
Lee later replied to Ma: “As an old friend of both mainland China and Taiwan, and a country which has firmly upheld a One China policy, Singapore is glad to have played a modest role in providing the venue for the meeting, just as we did with the Wang-Koo talks in 1993.”
Lee emphasised that his comments were personal and that Singapore strictly adhered to the One-China policy.
Ma and Xi’s discussions over the weekend were the first held between Taiwan and mainland China’s leaders since KMT forces fled to the island in 1949 after losing the civil war to the communists.
