BOAO, April 12: Taiwan’s vice president-elect said he and Chinese President Hu Jintao held “candid and harmonious” talks on Saturday in the highest-level contact between the two sides in years, and they had brought results.

Vincent Siew and Hu mainly talked about economic issues in their 20 minutes together, seen as an indicator of the incoming Taiwan government’s ability to bring about better ties with China.

“The talk was friendly, candid, and harmonious, and there were results,” Siew told reporters in a short press conference directly after meeting Hu. He did not elaborate on what those results were.

The encounter, on the margins of a regional gathering on the south Chinese island of Hainan, was historic, according to Su Chi, a ranking member of the Taiwan delegation.

“Good chemistry, harmonious chemistry,” Su said, when asked to describe the atmosphere of the meeting between Hu and a Taiwan delegation led by Siew.

The Chinese leader said as the talks opened that he was looking forward to discussing opportunities for economic cooperation. “The current cross-Strait economic exchange and cooperation are faced with an important historical moment which requires both sides to work together,” Hu said, after shaking hands with each member of the Taiwan delegation.

“I’m an old hand on Taiwan’s economic issues,” Siew told Hu in return. “I hope we can strengthen economic cooperation.”

The encounter comes before Siew has taken up office in Taiwan, but after he was part of the winning ticket in elections last month as the running mate of president-elect Ma Ying-jeou.

Ma, of the Kuomintang Party, takes over as Taiwan’s president after eight years under the rule of Chen Shui-bian, from the Democratic Progressive Party, whose pro-independence rhetoric irked Beijing.—AFP