AIT Acting Director David J. Keegan Expresses Gratitude to the People of Taiwan for Assistance after Hurricane Katrina
I would like to express the heartfelt thanks of all Americans to the leaders and citizens of Taiwan for your kind and generous offer of assistance for the Hurricane Katrina relief effort.
Your offer of $2 million and medical supplies has been identified as fulfilling a critical need. We are happy to accept this offer, and appreciate your show of solidarity with us during this time.
The fact that the people of Taiwan have responded so quickly and so thoroughly reaffirms the enduring friendship between our two peoples.
I have been told that many private citizens have expressed a desire to donate their personal funds to help Americans. The U.S. Department of State encourages citizens to donate Katrina relief through the Red Cross.
As Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said, we have seen the American people respond generously to help others around the globe during their times of distress, such as during the recent tsunami. And now, Americans are seeing a similar urgent, warm and compassionate reaction from the international community in response to the devastation inflicted on the United States by Hurricane Katrina.
It makes me feel good, as an American, to know that people acknowledge how much the United States has helped others in the past, so that now others want to help us.
As Secretary of State Rice has said, "We're very grateful that people are reaching out to the United States." Every offer of assistance is important, and appreciated.