CPC-KMT inter-party forum not decided yet

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-05-30 14:12

BEIJING -- The Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Kuomintang (KMT) haven't decided if they will hold a forum this year, a mainland spokesman said Friday.

Yang Yi, spokesman of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, meanwhile told a press conference here the mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) will convene its second executive council meeting on June 3.

Once the ARATS and the Taiwan-based Strait Exchange Foundation (SEF) resume their consultations, they will be able to discuss all the issues the compatriots from across the Taiwan Strait are concerned about, Yang said.

During talks with KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung here on Wednesday, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Hu Jintao called for early resumption of exchanges and talks between the ARATS and the SEF based on the "1992 Consensus".

Once the ARATS-SEF dialogue is resumed, priority should be given to issues including cross-Strait weekend chartered flights and approval for mainland residents traveling to Taiwan, which are of the biggest concern to people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, Hu has said.

Yang said it is the strong aspiration of compatriots from both sides that the two organizations start consultations on these two issues based on the "1992 Consensus".

The ARATS has sent a letter to the SEF on Thursday, inviting SEF Chairman Chiang Pin-kun and Vice Chairman and Secretary-General Kao Koong-lian to visit Beijing from June 11 to 14 for talks on the two issues.

Chiang accepted on the same day the ARATS's invitation, according to Taiwan media reports.

Yang also said that the mainland welcomes the KMT to again organize a delegation to pay homage to Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum in Nanjing, capital of eastern Jiangsu Province, next year.



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