Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九, center)/CNA file photo

Los Angeles, Nov. 4 (CNA) Former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) arrived in Los Angeles on Saturday evening on his third overseas trip since finishing his two-term tenure in May 2016.

Ma was welcomed by Taiwan's representative to Los Angeles Steve Hsia (夏季昌) and members of Taiwanese compatriot groups in the United States after arriving at Los Angeles International Airport.

The former president was invited to California by the Pacific Council on International Policy, a nonprofit membership-based think tank focused on foreign policy, and the University of Southern California.

On Sunday Ma will visit the decommissioned battleship, the USS Iowa (BB-61), which is now anchored in San Pedro and open to the public as the USS Iowa Museum.

In 1943, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt traveled to Egypt on the ship for a conference in Cairo that was also attended by United Kingdom Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) of the Republic of China.

At the Cairo Conference, the trio outlined the Allied position against Japan during World War II and made decisions about postwar Asia.

After the visit to the museum, Ma will attend a dinner banquet with Taiwanese expatriates living in the U.S.

On Monday, Ma will deliver a speech on Taiwan-China relations at the University of Southern California and meet with Taiwanese students afterward.

The following day Ma will attend a roundtable forum held by the Pacific Council on International Policy before catching a flight back to Taiwan that night.

Ma is scheduled to arrive at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport early on the morning of Nov. 9.

After leaving office, Ma visited Malaysia in November 2016 and then went to New York, Boston and Washington D.C. in February 2017.

(By Edward Tsao and Elizabeth Hsu)
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