The Ma-Xi Meeting successfully held in Singapore on November 7th, after President Ma Ying-jeou’s return home, has continued to generate both positive and negative voices in society, while presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen’s statements that change daily have become a talking point for both sides.
Regardless of how people interpret the Ma-Xi Meeting in their hearts, in this Ma-Xi Meeting spanning 66 years, President Ma Ying-jeou definitely greatly increased Taiwan’s international visibility, letting the world know that Taiwan has made substantive progress and growth in international affairs.
— Historical Text —
Mr. Xi, friends from the mainland side, continuing from our previous discussion:
Since 2008, the two sides have jointly created a peaceful and stable Taiwan Strait situation, which has earned widespread praise and support from people on both sides and the international community. This is a major milestone in the history of cross-strait relations development. In this process, “resolving disputes through peaceful means” is the core principle, while “institutionalized negotiations” is the concrete method. Both sides should cherish this institutional and historical achievement that was hard-won.
Next, I will elaborate further on the five points I just mentioned.
One: “Sustainable Peace and Prosperity” is the goal of cross-strait relations development, while the “1992 Consensus” is the key foundation for achieving this goal.
On August 1, 1992, the plenary session of our National Unification Council passed a resolution “On the Meaning of One China,” the content being “Both sides of the Taiwan Strait adhere to the principle of ‘One China,’ but the meanings respectively endowed by both sides differ.” The “1992 Consensus” reached between the two sides in November 1992 states that “both sides of the Taiwan Strait adhere to the principle of ‘One China,’ with the meaning able to be respectively expressed through oral statements,” which is the “One China, respective interpretations” 1992 Consensus. Our side states that the content is completely unrelated to “Two Chinas,” “One China One Taiwan,” and “Taiwan Independence,” because this is not permitted under the ROC Constitution. Such positioning is very clear and has also gained consensus among Taiwan’s majority public opinion.
The institutionalized achievements obtained by the two sides based on the “1992 Consensus,” including the beginning of institutionalized negotiations between the Straits Exchange Foundation and Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait 22 years ago, cross-strait talks resuming over 7 years ago, cross-strait affairs ministerial meetings in recent years, to today’s meeting between cross-strait leaders, have jointly established a “peaceful resolution of disputes” model, which should continue to be consolidated in the future, becoming the norm.
Two: Reduce hostile status, handle disputes peacefully.
The two sides are no longer in the past hostile status. For example, our side explicitly ended the Period of Communist Rebellion in 1991 and abolished the “Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of Communist Rebellion,” no longer viewing the CCP as a “rebel group,” and the following year according to the design of the Constitutional Amendments, established the “Act Governing Relations Between People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area,” legalizing cross-strait relations. Meanwhile, our side has reduced military presence in offshore islands of Kinmen and Matsu, with Big Kinmen and Little Kinmen demilitarized, and opened the Liu Wu-dian waterway in the Kinmen-Xiamen Strait. The mainland side, in turn, stopped bombarding Kinmen and Matsu on January 1, 1979, then merged the Fuzhou Military Region into the Nanjing Military Region. Battlefields where hundreds of thousands of troops once faced off have now become tourist destinations. Peaceful resolution of disputes has proven effective. Now tens of hundreds of thousands of mainland tourists visit Kinmen annually, compared to the tens of hundreds of thousands of shells from 1958, it’s truly like two centuries apart. And the souvenirs these tourists bring are kitchen knives made from shell casings. So all 23 cross-strait agreements use “peace” as the foundation and “peace” as the goal, all of which can be regarded as broadly peace agreements.
Here I particularly want to explain to Mr. Xi that recent foreign reports about military exercises at Zhurihe Base and missile-related issues are frequently used by the opposition party as a pretext to criticize cross-strait relations. If there were opportunities, perhaps your side could take some goodwill concrete actions that could reduce this kind of unnecessary criticism. During cross-strait relations development, Taiwan people particularly deeply feel security and dignity. The mainland side should particularly understand that during 7 years of cross-strait development, mainland tourists grew 13-fold, mainland students grew 42-fold, flights increased over 800-fold. These major improvements are all based on peace, so both sides should in different fields, including political, military, social, cultural, and legal domains, handle all disputes through peaceful means to increase mutual friendly feelings. We suggest starting from cross-strait participation in international activities, as meaningful participation in international society has always been Taiwan people’s greatest expectation. Our 7-year flexible diplomacy push has already formed a positive cycle with cross-strait relations, but this positive cycle hasn’t yet fully expanded. For example, Taiwan people visiting UN headquarters wanting to use our passports for verification are refused, professionals participating in NGO conferences or our participation in bilateral and multilateral economic cooperation are often obstructed. I think these circumstances would leave some negative impressions among Taiwan people, especially among social elites, so both sides should further reduce hostility and confrontation starting from these aspects, because the people involved in these activities are mostly intellectuals and middle class, and how we handle cross-strait relations work and their impressions of the mainland would be influenced.
Three: Expand cross-strait exchanges, promote mutually beneficial win-win results.
Cross-strait issues not yet concluded, such as goods trade agreements, mutual establishment of liaison offices, and mainland tourist transfers, should be handled as soon as possible. After 66 years of separation across the Taiwan Strait, the political systems and lifestyles adopted by the two sides differ greatly, requiring sufficient time for deep exchanges among cross-strait people in all aspects to increase understanding. The 23 agreements already signed between the two sides are like “bridges of friendship” the two sides have built together. The more bridges, the more they interweave into an exchange and interaction “network,” finally connecting into a “plane.” Currently both sides should quickly negotiate resolving goods trade, mutual establishment of liaison offices, mainland tourist transfer issues, and appropriately handle international space friction issues. From our observations over these years, if these issues don’t have consensus from both sides’ high-level leadership, the working level always insists on its own views, hesitates and makes no progress, unable to benefit cross-strait people early.
On historical and cultural aspects, regarding Mr. Xi’s suggestion two months ago about sharing wartime historical materials and jointly writing wartime history books, we maintain an open attitude and are willing to conduct civil cooperation under the four principles of “mutual equality and reciprocity, archive openness, no taboos, and free research.” We believe that if both sides can honestly face history, it will help narrow the distance between cross-strait people, construct common historical memory, and help cross-strait relations develop peacefully. Meanwhile, in cross-strait economic cooperation aspects, regional economic integration is a global trend. Since the two sides’ economic volumes and advantages differ, simultaneous participation by both sides in regional economic cooperation would definitely strengthen mutually beneficial cross-strait economic cooperation and common prosperity. I think Mr. Xi should well understand that we are now applying to join TPP and hope to eventually join RCEP, because these two together account for about 70% of our external trade. Therefore we fundamentally have no choice but to participate. Thus on this issue, we feel there shouldn’t be a first-or-later question, and should actively develop economic cooperation with other countries, complementing and not contradicting each other. Both sides should find appropriate methods to jointly contribute to international economic trade fields. Between our two sides’ five years ago signed Cross-Strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) there’s a section on economic cooperation that could be well utilized.
【When Xi Jinping during closed-door discussions mentioned cross-strait academic and educational exchanges, President Ma proactively mentioned:
Mr. Xi, you just mentioned studying abroad. Now those coming to Taiwan from the mainland to study are mostly at universities and graduate schools. Those studying at Taiwan universities graduated for the first time in June this year, with half continuing to graduate school. We previously mentioned associate-degree to bachelor’s conversion, currently very few due to people, but now due to Taiwan’s declining birth rate, many of our technological universities of not bad quality have many vacancies. I actually think this is a cooperation opportunity. Countries like Vietnam, Thailand, India, and Indonesia use government funding to send lecturer-level teachers to Taiwan for graduate studies. I’ve been working hard to promote mainland associate-degree to bachelor’s conversion, but the results haven’t been very good. Could you perhaps encourage this on your side? I know associate-degree to bachelor’s conversion has large demand, possibly over a million, but we can at least provide quite many opportunities. Right now we’re also reviewing the overall university education, and due to declining birth rates, universities have become excessive. I think this is a very good opportunity. We hope to make Taiwan become a leading center for higher education in Asia-Pacific. When I took office there were 30,000 people; this year it exceeded 100,000. This number sounds small to the mainland, but it’s positive for Taiwan. I ask your consideration】
Four: Establish cross-strait hotlines, handle urgent issues.
We’ve already discussed this: the Straits Exchange Foundation and Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait board chairs already have liaison mechanisms, and the Mainland Affairs Council and Taiwan Affairs Office deputy heads also have liaison mechanisms, but there’s no liaison mechanism between the Mainland Affairs Council head and Taiwan Affairs Office director. We could take this opportunity to establish one. Of course, it can be adjusted later if needed, even upgraded. Of course, if there are major things that need to be handled urgently and are particularly important, I feel it helps both sides handle things.
Five: Cross-strait joint cooperation, strive to revive Chinese civilization.
I want to emphasize again: cross-strait people belong to the same Chinese nation, are all descendants of Yan and Huang, sharing common blood, history, and culture. Both sides should help each other and cooperate to revive Chinese civilization.
Mr. Xi, today the two of us meeting aims to demonstrate to the outside world that cross-strait relations can be handled through Taiwan Strait peace and in the future can continue to develop on an institutionalized foundation. Between the two sides exist historically complicated relationships left behind, and various issues arising from exchanges and interaction. Resolution of these issues cannot be accomplished overnight, requiring both sides in the exchange and negotiation process to face reality, accumulate achievements, and cultivate mutual trust.
In fact, cross-strait interaction hasn’t completely avoided political issues. For instance, five years ago we signed cross-strait joint crime-fighting and judicial mutual assistance agreements. From whatever angle you view it, these are highly political issues, but both sides signed very quickly and the results afterward were very large. Mr. Xi may not know that our two sides have jointly arrested over 7,000 suspects, and just this action alone reduced Taiwan’s fraud crime losses by 82%, from 18.6 billion down to just over 3 billion. This could be said to be the work Taiwanese people felt most acutely. We should strengthen such things. We didn’t avoid these because legal, court, and sovereignty issues are somewhat sensitive, but at that time we just moved very quickly and did it very well. Because I previously served as justice minister, I frequently promote the effectiveness of cross-strait cooperation, not only can the two sides do it, but we can also go to some Southeast Asian countries and do it. On this point we especially thank your side for providing us much convenience. In fact both sides currently also have many political obstacles and mutual recognition isn’t possible, but outside of that, we should be able to find some methods to resolve problems. For instance the “One China” issue isn’t easy to solve short-term, but after all the “1992 Consensus” appeared over 20 years ago with both sides finally finding a way to temporarily set aside disputes. Mr. Xi may know that at that time the two sides negotiated in Hong Kong and the situation fell apart, both sides went home. Later Taiwan sent another fax to the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait with three suggestions, and unexpectedly it worked out. The whole thing differed by just one or two weeks; it really created history. Looking back, increasingly more Taiwan people feel the “1992 Consensus” is truly the best political foundation currently for connection.
Finally, the 7-year achievements of “peace and prosperity” are clear evidence of cross-strait relations “turning swords into plowshares,” and have become a model for stability in the entire East Asian region. Both sides should treasure this carefully and properly maintain cross-strait relations’ peaceful and stable development direction is Taiwan society’s mainstream public opinion. Both sides should have confidence in this. The key to future cross-strait relations development lies in popular sentiment. We hope the mainland side truly understands and recognizes that only cross-strait relations built on “dignity, respect, sincerity, and goodwill” are beneficial for increasing mutual trust and can “proceed steadily toward distant goals.”
Though 7 years isn’t a long time, the efforts of both cross-strait sides to establish peaceful prosperity in cross-strait relations have already surpassed the achievements of over 60 years of cross-strait interaction in the past. Though my term has only about six months remaining, I will continue to firmly push forward cross-strait relations, won’t slack off, and won’t stop. Both sides should be brave in facing and bearing responsibility, think positively from positive angles about cross-strait sustainable development policy measures, and introduce major achievements in the near term, giving people a sense of feeling, creating and maintaining positive cross-strait atmosphere to bring happy and healthy life to cross-strait people.
Mr. Xi, modern Chinese history has been filled with too much warfare and turmoil. Now the mainland’s political and economic power has risen, plus Taiwan’s democratic development and achievements are the pride of the Chinese nation. I especially remember you, over two years ago, telling Guo Bo-rong, honorary chairman of the China Unionist Party’s delegation representing our party, that both sides should have “spiritual resonance,” which is similar to what I often mention of “narrowing the spiritual distance.” Both sides want peace, not war. Both sides should have the resolve and confidence to prove to all sides that only with both sides working in common cause can we create a better future for the next generation across the strait. Thank you all.
Since 2008, the two sides have jointly created a peaceful and stable situation in the Taiwan Strait, receiving widespread praise and support from the people on both sides and the international community. This is a major milestone in the history of the development of cross-strait relations. In this process, “resolving disputes in a peaceful way” is the core concept, and “institutionalized negotiation” is the specific method. Both sides should cherish this hard-won institutional and historical achievement.
Next, I will further elaborate on the five points just mentioned.
1. “Sustainable Peace and Prosperity” is the goal of the development of cross-strait relations, and the “1992 Consensus” is the key foundation for achieving this goal.
On August 1, 1992, the plenary meeting of our National Unification Council passed the resolution “On the Meaning of One China,” which stated that “both sides of the Taiwan Strait adhere to the ‘one China’ principle, but the meanings given by the two sides are different.” The “1992 Consensus” reached by the two sides in November 1992 stated that “both sides of the Taiwan Strait adhere to the ‘one China’ principle, and its meaning can be expressed respectively through oral statements.” This is the “1992 Consensus” of “one China, respective interpretations”; our side’s expressed content completely does not involve “two Chinas,” “one China, one Taiwan,” or “Taiwan independence,” because this is not permitted by the Constitution of the Republic of China. Such positioning is very clear and has also gained the consensus of the majority of public opinion in Taiwan.
The institutionalized achievements obtained by the two sides on the basis of the “1992 Consensus,” including the start of institutionalized negotiations between the SEF and ARATS 22 years ago, the resumption of cross-strait talks more than 7 years ago, the meetings of heads of cross-strait affairs in the past 2 years, up to today’s meeting of leaders of the two sides, etc., have jointly established a model for “peaceful resolution of disputes.” It should continue to be consolidated and formed into a norm in the future.
2. Reduce hostility and handle disputes peacefully.
The two sides are currently not in the past state of hostility. For example, our side formally ordered the termination of the period of national emergency for suppression of the communist rebellion in 1991, abolished the “Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of National Mobilization for Suppression of the Communist Rebellion,” no longer regarded the CCP as a “rebellion group,” and in the following year, based on the design of the Constitutional Amendments, formulated the “Act Governing Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area” to legalize cross-strait relations. At the same time, our side has reduced garrison troops on the outer islands of Kinmen and Matsu, demilitarized Dadan and Erdan islands, and opened the Liuwudian channel in the Kinmen-Xiamen sea area, etc. The mainland side, on January 1, 1979, stopped shelling the Kinmen and Matsu areas, and subsequently merged the Fuzhou Military Region into the Nanjing Military Region. The battlefields where hundreds of thousands of troops once confronted each other have now become tourist attractions. Peacefully resolving disputes has been effective. Now about hundreds of thousands of mainland tourists go to Kinmen every year. Thinking back to 1958 when hundreds of thousands of shells came, it really feels like two different centuries. Moreover, the souvenirs brought by these tourists are kitchen knives made from shell fragments. Therefore, the 23 cross-strait agreements are all based on “peace” and aimed at “peace,” and can all be regarded as peaceful agreements in a broad sense.
Here, I specifically explain to Mr. Xi that recent reports on military exercises at the Zhurihe base and missile issues are pretexts often used by opposition parties to criticize cross-strait relations; if there is an opportunity, your side can take some concrete actions of goodwill, which should reduce such unnecessary criticism. In the process of developing cross-strait relations, the people of Taiwan have particularly profound feelings about security and dignity. The mainland side should especially understand that the achievements of cross-strait relations development over the past 7 years—mainland tourists growing 13 times, mainland students growing 42 times, and flights increasing more than 800 times—the foundation of these major improvements is peace. Therefore, both sides should handle disputes in various fields, including political, military, social, cultural, and legal fields, in a peaceful way to enhance the friendly feelings of both sides. We suggest starting from cross-strait participation in international activities, because meaningful participation in the international community has always been the greatest expectation of the people of Taiwan. Our side has promoted “flexible diplomacy” for 7 years, which has formed a virtuous cycle with cross-strait relations, but this virtuous cycle has not yet been fully expanded. For example, when Taiwanese people visit the UN headquarters and want to use our passports for identification, they are refused; professionals participating in non-governmental organization meetings, or our participation in bilateral and multilateral economic and trade cooperation, etc., are also often obstructed. I think these situations will leave some negative impressions among the people of Taiwan, especially the social elites. Therefore, the two sides should start by further reducing hostility and confrontation in these aspects; because most of the people involved in these activities are intellectuals and the middle class, such impacts will affect their impression of the mainland and our mainland-related work.
3. Expand cross-strait exchanges and enhance mutual benefit and win-win.
Cross-strait issues that have not yet been closed, such as the trade-in-goods agreement, the mutual establishment of representative offices, and transit for mainland tourists, should be handled as soon as possible. In the 66 years since the two sides of the strait have been divided and governed across the sea, the political and economic systems and lifestyles adopted have been very different, requiring enough time for the people on both sides to have deep exchanges and enhance understanding in all aspects. The 23 agreements signed by the two sides are like “bridges of friendship” built by both sides. More bridges form a “network” of interaction, and finally connect into a “plane.” Currently, both sides should promptly negotiate and resolve issues such as trade in goods, mutual establishment of representative offices, mainland tourist transit, and appropriately handle international space friction issues. Based on our observations over these years, if these issues do not have the final decision from the top levels of both sides, the working levels will always insist on their own opinions, hesitate to move forward, and refuse to yield, failing to benefit the people on both sides at an early date.
Regarding history and culture, relative to Mr. Xi’s suggestion 2 months ago to share historical materials of the War of Resistance and jointly write the history of the war, we maintain an open attitude and are willing to conduct civil cooperation under the four principles of “equality and mutual benefit, archiving disclosure, no forbidden zones, and free research.” We believe that if both sides can honestly face history, it will bridge the distance between the people of both sides, build common historical memory, and help the peaceful development of cross-strait relations. Meanwhile, in terms of cross-strait economic and trade cooperation, regional economic integration is a global trend. The economic volumes and advantages of the two sides are different, and the simultaneous participation of both sides in regional economic cooperation will surely strengthen mutual benefit and co-prosperity. I think Mr. Xi should understand very well that we are currently applying to join the TPP and hope to join the RCEP in the future, because these two added together account for about 70% of our foreign trade; therefore, we simply do not have the right not to participate. Thus, on this issue, we feel there should not be a question of who goes first or later, and we should also actively develop economic cooperation with other countries, complementing each other and proceeding in parallel. Both sides should find appropriate methods to jointly contribute effort in the field of international economy and trade. The Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) signed by both sides 5 years ago mentioned the part of economic cooperation, which can be given full play.
[When Xi Jinping mentioned cross-strait academic and educational exchanges during the closed-door session, President Ma took the initiative to mention:
Mr. Xi, you just mentioned studying abroad. Currently, many of those who come from the mainland to study in Taiwan are in universities and graduate schools. Those studying in universities in Taiwan have already seen the first batch graduate in June this year, and half continue to graduate school. We previously mentioned ‘Zhuan Sheng Ben’ (upgrading from junior college to university). Currently, because the number of people is very small, but because of the result of declining birth rates in Taiwan, many of our technical and vocational universities with not-bad quality have many vacancies. Actually, I think this is an opportunity for cooperation. Countries including Vietnam, Thailand, India, and Indonesia all send lecturer-level teachers to Taiwan at public expense for graduate studies. I have been working hard to promote the matter of mainland ‘Zhuan Sheng Ben,’ but the effectiveness has not been very good. Could Mr. Xi please push it forward? I know the demand for ‘Zhuan Sheng Ben’ may be much, perhaps over a million, but at least we can provide quite a few opportunities. Coincidentally, we are also currently reviewing the entire university education because, as a result of declining birth rates, universities have become redundant. I think this is a very good opportunity. We hope to turn Taiwan into a center for higher education in the Asia-Pacific. Therefore, when I took office it was 30,000 people, this year it exceeded 100,000. This number sounds small to the mainland, but it is positive for Taiwan. Please think about it.]
4. Set up a cross-strait hotline to handle urgent and important issues.
As we just said, the heads of the SEF and ARATS already have a contact mechanism, and the deputy heads of the MAC and TAO also have a contact mechanism, but there is no contact mechanism between the Minister of the MAC and the Director of the TAO yet. We might as well take this opportunity to establish it. Of course, it can be adjusted and upgraded later if needed. Of course, if major events can be handled at the first moment—whether sudden or particularly important—I think it is helpful for the handling by both sides.
5. Cross-strait joint cooperation, committing to the revitalization of China.
I want to emphasize once again that the people on both sides belong to the Chinese nation and are all descendants of Yan and Huang, sharing common blood, history, and culture. Both sides should help each other and cooperate, committing to the revitalization of China.
Mr. Xi, today the two of us are meeting for the purpose of demonstrating to the outside world that cross-strait relations can be handled by peace in the strait, and will continue to develop on an institutionalized basis in the future. Between the two sides, there are complex relations left over from history, and there are various problems derived from exchanges. The resolution of these matters cannot be achieved overnight; it requires both sides to face reality, accumulate results, and cultivate mutual trust in the process of exchange and negotiation.
In fact, the process of cross-strait interaction has not completely avoided political issues. For example, the cross-strait agreement on joint fight against crime and mutual legal assistance signed by us 5 years ago, from any point of view, is an issue with very high political nature, but the two sides signed it very quickly, and after signing, the effect was very large. Mr. Xi may not know that the suspects arrested by us jointly have already exceeded 7,000. Just this action has reduced the amount lost to fraud crimes in Taiwan by 82%, from 18.6 billion down to only 3-plus billion. It can be said to be a piece of work that the people of Taiwan feel most strongly about. Matters like this should be strengthened. We didn’t stop because judicial, court, and sovereignty issues are all a bit sensitive; at that time, it was very quick and done very well. Because I served as the Minister of Justice in the past, I frequently promote the effectiveness of these cross-strait collaborations. Not only can the two sides do it, but we can also go to some Southeast Asian countries to do it. On this point, we also especially thank your side for providing us with a lot of convenience. In fact, there are currently many political obstacles between the two sides, and mutual recognition is impossible, but besides this, some methods to solve problems should be found. For example, the issue of “one China” is not easy to solve in the short term, but after all, the “1992 Consensus” appeared more than 20 years ago, and both sides finally found a way to temporarily shelve disputes. Mr. Xi probably knows that at that time, when the two sides were negotiating in Hong Kong, it broke down and both sides went home; later, Taiwan sent another fax to ARATS with 3 suggestions, and unexpectedly it was settled. It was only 1 or 2 weeks apart, really creating history. Looking back, more and more people in Taiwan feel that the “1992 Consensus” is indeed the best political foundation for contact at present.
Finally, the achievements of “peace and prosperity” over the past 7 years are proof of “turning swords into plowshares” across the strait, and have become a model for stability in the entire East Asian region. Both sides should cherish it. Appropriately maintaining the direction of peaceful and stable development of cross-strait relations is the common mainstream view of Taiwan society, and both sides should have confidence in this. The key to the future development of cross-strait relations lies in the winning or losing of public hearts. We hope the mainland side can truly understand and realize that only cross-strait relations built on “dignity, respect, and sincerity, goodwill” are conducive to increasing mutual trust and can “go steady and far.”
Although 7 years is not long, the efforts of both sides to establish a peaceful and prosperous landscape in cross-strait relations have already exceeded the achievements of cross-strait interactions over the past sixty-plus years. Although my term has only 6 months left, I will continue to firmly promote cross-strait relations, without slackening or stopping. Both your side and mine should have the courage to face and bear responsibilities, actively think about policy measures for the sustainable development of cross-strait relations from a positive angle, and launch major results in the near future to make people feel it, creating and maintaining a positive atmosphere across the strait, so as to bring a life of happiness, health, and peace to the people on both sides.
Mr. Xi, modern Chinese history is filled with too much war and turmoil. Now the mainland’s political and economic strength is rising, plus Taiwan’s democratic development and achievements, these are all the pride of the Chinese nation. I especially remember that more than two years ago, you mentioned to our Kuomintang’s Honorary Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung’s representative delegation that the two sides should reach “spiritual harmony,” which has a similar expectation as my often mentioned “bridging the spiritual distance.” Both sides want peace and do not want war. Both sides should have the determination and confidence to prove to all parties that only by working together with one heart can we create a better future for the next generation on both sides. Thank you, everyone.