TIANJIN -- Chinese mainland and Taiwan negotiators on Thursday afternoon signed an agreement on cross-Strait cooperation in nuclear safety.
Chinese mainland and Taiwan negotiators issued a joint statement on the negotiation of a cross-Strait investment protection agreement.
The statement was issued by the mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) and the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF).
"Nuclear power safety is related to the health of everyone's lives on both sides of the Taiwan Straits and concerns the ecological environment that we share," said Chen Yunlin, president of the Beijing-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS).
Chen said the agreement will try to establish an emergency notification system, promote the cooperation of nuclear authorities of both sides and increase the exchange of experience on how to better regulate the industry.
ARATS and SEF, the two semi-official organizations responsible for dealing with cross-Straits relations, resumed talks in June 2008.
Wang Hailiang, a researcher with the Taiwan Studies Center at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said the expected nuclear power security cooperation agreement comes at the right time.
Wang said there are growing concerns over nuclear safety after Japan's earthquake in March that crippled the Fukushima nuclear plant, which caused a potential nuclear meltdown crisis.
"Cooperation is very much needed as nuclear plants are seen on both the mainland and Taiwan," Wang said.
The agreement on investment is more difficult to reach and could be delayed as the island still fears a large capital inflow from the mainland and a lack of experience and regulations to manage mainland business people, according to Wang.
