Taiwan should establish a free-trade pact with Japan to boost bilateral economic and cultural ties, a Taiwanese presidential candidate said Wednesday during a trip aimed at bolstering his relations with Tokyo.
Ma Ying-jeou of the Nationalist Party, the main opposition force, said in a speech at Kyoto's Doshisha University that he also hoped to have frequent, high-level contacts with the Japanese government should he win the March polls.
"When I get elected, I will give Taiwan a new lens to look at the bilateral ties and improve exchanges in the private sector," Taiwan's state-owned Central News Agency quoted Ma as saying in the speech.