Singapore, Nov 7 (EFE).– Chinese President Xi Jinping and Taiwanese counterpart Ma Ying-jeou wrote a page in the history of the two territories on Saturday, holding the first ever meeting between leaders of these longstanding rivals.

The meeting – held at a neutral site, a luxury hotel in Singapore – ended with promises to further develop relations in the future as long as Taiwan does not declare formal independence and the two sides continue to adhere to the so-called “consensus of 1992.”

That ambiguous formula, agreed at a semi-official meeting that year, states that both mainland China and Taiwan belong to a single “China” but allows each to have different interpretations of that concept.

The consensus has “made dialogue possible and yielded significant fruit,” Ma said in a press conference after the meeting.

The encounter, which was prepared for two years and was announced by surprise late Tuesday, was carefully choreographed, with the two leaders engaging in a long handshake for reporters and addressing one another as “mister” to avoid the legal implications of the word “president.”

Xi’s remarks prior to the closed-door meeting focused on the two sides’ common heritage, the need to respect the consensus of 1992 and rejection of the possibility of Taiwan declaring formal independence.

“Today we’re taking a historic step,” Xi said, adding that “we’re responsible before history and must make wise decisions.”

Ma presented a five-point agenda for consolidating the peaceful development of bilateral relations, while also upholding the 1992 consensus and backing China’s rejection of the idea of formal independence for the self-ruled island.

The meeting was held two months before presidential and legislative elections in Taiwan, in which the leader of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, or PDP, Tsai Ing-wen, is the frontrunner to succeed Ma Ying-jeou, a member of the Kuomintang party.

Mainland China and Taiwan have been under separate rule since 1949 when the Nationalist troops of Chiang Kai-shek lost the Chinese Civil War to Communist forces led by Mao Zedong and retreated to the island of Formosa, just over 100 miles off the southeastern coast of mainland China.

Since then, there have been periodic outbreaks of tension between the two neighbors, with China threatening to use force if the island formally declares its independence. EFE