TAIPEI: Taiwan is expected to forge an agreement on financial cooperation with China “soon”, in yet another sign of evolving ties between the two former bitter rivals, it was reported today.

A senior Taiwanese official in charge of relations with China said over

the weekend that the formal signing of the agreement, which calls for closer banking, insurance and securities cooperation, “could take place soon,” local media reported.

Negotiations on the agreement “are almost complete,” said Chiang Pin-kung, chairman of the quasi-official Straits Exchange Foundation.

The foundation and its Chinese counterpart, Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, have been authorised separately by their governments to handle exchanges in the absence of official contact between the two sides.

Relations between China and Taiwan have improved markedly since May 2008, when the China-friendly Ma Ying-jeou assumed the presidency, pledging to push for closer economic cooperation and allow in more Chinese tourists.