U.S. and Taiwan (2006)

U.S. Department of State

Daily Press Briefing

Sean McCormack, Spokesman
Washington, DC
October 31, 2006

12:23 p.m. EST

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

MR. MCCORMACK: Yes, ma'am, in the back.

QUESTION: On Taiwan -- is that okay? Go to Taiwan?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, do we have others on North Korea?

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

QUESTION: Well, actually, I had a Taiwan question.

MR. MCCORMACK: Okay, there you are. You're up.

QUESTION: Taiwan congress didn't pass the arm purchase bill in process yesterday and this time is the 62nd time failure. But some believe this failure this time is credit to AIT Director Stephen Young's remarks. How's your comment?

MR. MCCORMACK: Mr. Young didn't say anything new or different in his remarks. It's happened in the past that this legislation hasn't been passed. I wouldn't draw any linkage between the two.

QUESTION: It's reported in Taiwan that the U.S. is becoming a little distressed over the length of time that the Taiwan parliament or legislature is taking to do the arms package and that the United States has imposed some, I would say, punitive measures, curtailing some contacts, military-to-military contacts, because of this frustration. Is that --

MR. MCCORMACK: I'm not aware of it. I'll look into it for you.

One other thing. I just want to draw your attention to this. We're going to put out this copy -- it is a statement of principles by participants in the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism. This is the initiative that President Bush and President Putin agreed to at their summit meeting. Bob Joseph was -- headed our delegation that was in Morocco. I think you now have 13 countries that have signed up to this. It is an important initiative, analogous in its structure to the Proliferation Security Initiative. We all have to remember that PSI started small and it was something new. People didn't really understand it. It has now grown into a very effective global tool to fight proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

(The briefing was concluded at 1:10 p.m.)

Released on October 31, 2006