By Saadet Gokce
ISTANBUL (AA) - The Communist Party of China (CPC) is set to resume a forum with Taiwan’s main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party next month, state-run Xinhua news agency said Wednesday.
The two parties will hold the think tank forum in Beijing on Feb. 3, said Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Zhang Han.
The forum will be co-hosted by research institutes affiliated with the two parties.
Deputy KMT Chairman Hsiao Hsu-tsen said at a news conference that he will lead the delegation, joined by National Policy Foundation Deputy Chairman Lee Hong-yuan and 40 experts and scholars, according to the Taipei-based Central News Agency.
Participants will discuss topics such as the tourism industry, environment and cooperation on sustainable development, strengthening collaboration and jointly exploring major plans for the development of cross-Strait relations, according to CGTN.
The forum, held between 2006 and 2016, stopped that year as the Democratic Progressive Party came to power in Taiwan.
KMT chair Cheng Li-wun told Nikkei Asia last November about the "opportunity" to meet China's President Xi Jinping, that "dialogue can indeed replace confrontation" and avert "destruction," and that her willingness to meet is based on the premise of maintaining "peace."
She also said that if Taipei accepted that there is only one China, even with different interpretations, tensions would cease.