(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-06-16 16:07

BEIJING -- Overseas Chinese and media around the world have welcomed the resumption of talks between the Chinese mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) and the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF).

Li Tao, president of the Chinese Motherland Peace and Unity Promotion Association of Australia, said the two sides' agreements on weekend chartered flights and mainland tourists' travel to Taiwan inaugurated a new chapter in the history of cross-Straits relations.

Cross-Straits relations will become closer and closer with deepening people-to-people exchanges between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan, he said.

Chen Weidong, vice president of the Australian Capital Territory Council for the Promotion of the Peaceful Reunification of China, said the agreements brought substantial convenience for exchanges across the Taiwan Straits.

He called the agreements important political achievements conducive to Taiwan's economic development, which deserve congratulations from overseas Chinese around the world.

Ni Jian, president of the Czech Council for the Promotion of the Peaceful Reunification of China, said the resumption of talks between the ARATS and the SEF in Beijing is a great milestone in improving cross-Straits relations.

It has brought a new opportunity for and will exert a significant influence on the development of cross-Straits ties, he added.

In a statement, the Chinese American Alliance for China's Peaceful Reunification and the National Association for China's Peaceful Unification in Washington said the resumption of talks has put cross-Straits ties on a normal track of sound interaction.

There is great promise for relations between the two sides and people across the Straits will attain substantial benefits thanks to the agreements, said the statement.

Malaysia's Sin Chew Daily said in a commentary that the resumption of talks restarted the consultative mechanism that had broken off for years.

The normalization of talks between the ARATS and the SEF will not only facilitate mutual understanding, but also lay a solid foundation for lasting peace across the Taiwan Straits, said the newspaper.