BEIJING, June 12 (Xinhua) -- Wang Yi, director of the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, met Taiwan's chief negotiator Chiang Pin-kun here Thursday afternoon.

    Chiang, chairman of the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), arrived in Beijing Wednesday afternoon for talks with the mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS).

    ARATS chairman Chen Yunlin and SEF chairman Chiang Pin-kun held their talks on Thursday morning. It was the first talks between the ARATS and SEF in nine years.

    The talks were followed by consultations on cross-Strait weekend charted flights and mainland tourists traveling to Taiwan. The two sides also planned to sign related agreements on June 13.

    Wang Yi, also director of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said the resumption of talks between the two organizations based on the "1992 Consensus" signaled a new step toward peaceful development of relations across the Taiwan Strait.

    Through equal consultations, the two organizations reached consensus on issues including opening chartered flights on weekends across the Taiwan Strait and allowing mainland tourists traveling to Taiwan, which would benefit people on both sides of the Strait, Wang said.

    "The good momentum of cross-Strait relations development is hard-won and we should cherish and nurture it," he said.

    Wang said General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Hu Jintao had recently proposed to "build mutual trust, lay aside disputes, seek consensus and shelve differences, and jointly create a win-win situation" for realizing the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations.

    Building mutual trust was the top priority, while that should be based on opposing "Taiwan Independence" and adhering to the "1992 Consensus", he said.

    Wang said the talks between the two organizations should continue. Further strengthening cross-Strait exchanges and cooperation conformed to the wishes of the people, the historical trend and common interests, he said.

    The opportunity of revitalizing the Chinese nation was also hard-won, he said. The compatriots across the Strait should grasp such an opportunity, fulfill their historic responsibilities, and work together in the historical trend, he said.

    Chiang said he agreed with Wang's remarks.

    Consultation across the Strait resumed after nine years of interruption, and we did cherish it very much, he said.

    He added that the significance also lay in the fact that it was the first consultation between the two organizations in the 21st century.

    He said the settling of the two issues of cross-Strait weekend chartered flights and mainland tourists traveling to Taiwan would not only facilitate the communications between the people across the Strait, but help spur Taiwan's economic development.

    Chiang said he agreed with Hu's proposals. The people on both sides of the Strait belong to one family and one Chinese nation, he said.

    "We will continuously promote the process of cross-Strait consultations and hope that through our concerted efforts, we can normalize the cross-Strait trade and economic relations and promote goodwill interaction to contribute to peace and common prosperity across the Strait," he said.

    Wang pledged that his office would give full support to the work of the ARATS, and help create favorable conditions for the exchanges and consultations between the two organizations.

    Established in 1991 and 1990, respectively, the ARATS and SEF are authorized non-governmental organizations (NGO) engaged in talks on issues related to exchanges across the Taiwan Strait.

    In 1992, the two groups held negotiations in Hong Kong and reached the "1992 Consensus."

    In 1993, ARATS chairman Wang Daohan and SEF chairman Koo Chen-fu held talks in Singapore in the first public meeting between high-level figures in the name of non-governmental organization (NGO) leaders since 1949.

    Talks between the two sides were suspended in 1999 after Taiwan's leader at the time, Li Teng-hui, proposed his "special state-to-state" model for cross-Strait relations. 

Editor: Mu Xuequan