R/V MELVILLE MARINE RESEARCH CLEARANCE DENIED BY

UNCLAS AIT TAIPEI 000034 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR OES/OA ETIRPAK/RBARNES E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KRVC TPHY EWWT JA RP TW SUBJECT: R/V MELVILLE MARINE RESEARCH CLEARANCE DENIED BY TAIWAN REF: A) STATE 1194 B) 12/13/07 EMAIL FROM AIT/TAIPEI (CONNELL) TO OES/OA (BARNES) ¶1. AIT forwarded R/V Melville clearance application via cover letter to TECRO on December 13, 2007 (ref B). TECRO then forwarded the application to the National Science Council (NSC) for consideration. On January 8 AIT received a formal written reply to the clearance request denying clearance for the vessel. ¶2. Begin informal translation of letter: --From: National Science Council --Topic: Reply to AIT's Application for R/V Melville to Conduct Marine Scientific Research in Taiwan's Waters from 3/11/2008 to 12/31/2008. --Explanation: --1. According to Article 4 of the Measures for the Marine Science Research in the ROC Special Economic Maritime Area and Continental Shelf, individual foreigners or foreign researchers partnered with Taiwan citizens should submit their applications six months prior to the beginning date of the research. The (Melville) application indicated its first entry date into Taiwan waters is March 2, 2008, and there it failed to meet the requirement. --2. According to item 5.1 of the application, the project is applying for multiple entries into Taiwan's waters. The current application, however, does not provide the itinerary for each of the cruise operations nor a list of crew members, as is required by Taiwan's regulations. Please inform the U.S. side to supply the related information. The National Science Council will continue to process future applications provided that all the requirements are met. --(signed) CHEN, Chien-jen, Chairman End informal translation of letter. ¶3. In a January 9 telephone conversation, an NSC staffer reaffirmed that the NSC supports such research, but that there would not be enough time to obtain all of the interagency approvals before the March 2 entry date, due to the late receipt of application and the coming Chinese New Year holiday. The NSC contact said she believed that the Melville researchers had already been advised of this issue by their local partner. She also noted that the current application provided significantly less information than what was provided in a similar application last year. The NSC staffer encouraged the Melville to reapply with a more complete application right away so that clearance could be arranged for a later date. YOUNG