Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou said Saturday that Taiwan and China should hold more talks to speed up economic and cultural exchanges, according to DPA. Ma made the comments while receiving Chiang Ping-kun, who returned to Taipei Saturday after holding talks with China. Both sides agreeing to launch weekend charter flights and allow Chinese tourists to visit Taiwan. The June 12-13 dialogue is the follow-up to the historic 1993 dialogue, the first contact between Taipei and Beijing since 1949. In his meeting with Chiang, chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation which handles Taipei-Beijing ties in the absence of formal ties, Ma said the June 12-13 Beijing dialogue is a giant step in bilateral relations. "In future, we should discuss cargo charter flight, direct sea link, trade and daily charter flights. These should be discussed as soon as possible," he said. Ma said that after Taiwan has opened air links with China, there will be a structural change in cross-strait ties, necessitating more talks. Ma also said that as there are many urgent issues to solve, in future, instead of sending a large delegation to China (or Taiwan) to discuss one topic, the two sides could send several smaller teams to hold several talks simultaneously, with each panel discussing two to three topics. Ma hopes the two sides could be more efficient "because our speed is slower than people's expectation." Taiwan and China are expected to hold the next dialogue in Taipei this autumn.
