Arriving in Belize this evening was Tawian's joint chief of staff, and that country's air force commander, General Lee Tien Yu. Lee's visit is reciprocal, after General Lloyd Gillett went to Taiwan in late September. On the agenda are discussions on mutual cooperation between the Belize Defense Force and the Taiwanese armed forces. Both Gillett and Lee expressed their spirit of cooperation today.
Brig. Gen. Lloyd Gillett, BDF Commander
"Weeks ago and invited him to come and visit Belize, visit the BDF, see how we can increase military cooperation between Belize and Taiwan. There is cooperation that exists at the diplomatic level, at the economic level, and so we want to see how we can increase it at the military level.
The Taiwanese Armed Force have very well developed education institutions and we are looking to see how we can get some of our students over there at their military academies. Secondly, they have a very well developed military industry capability and so there are military equipment that we might be looking to procure from them and also looking to see how they can assist us with some equipment."
General Lee Tien Yu, Taiwan
"I'm very happy to be here, to receive the invitation of General Gillett to visit Belize and it is really a great honor for my wife and all the members of my delegation to visit Belize. I saw the beauty of your country and I've been looking forward to this visit for a long time, when he visited our country in mid-September, and we hope that through this visit, we can discuss various issues of mutual concern and widen the cooperation between our two countries."
Lee will visit Price Barracks, the Minister of Defense, the Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister. He leaves the country on Sunday.
