President Ma Ying-jeou reiterated Wednesday that his administration's efforts to improve relations with China will by no means affect Taiwan's ties with its diplomatic allies. Ma made the remarks while meeting with 18 senior military and police officers from five diplomatic allies in Central and South America and the Caribbean -- the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Paraguay -- who are attending advanced study courses in Taiwan. The president explained that his administration has been working hard to improve relations with China over the past 17 months with specific goals in mind. 'The main purpose of such efforts is to reduce tensions in the Taiwan Strait and to seek the possibility of normalizing bilateral trade and economic relations, ' Ma said, adding that the drive will not affect Taiwan's long-term relationship with its diplomatic allies. Moreover, Ma said Taiwan is willing to discuss with its allies the feasibility of extending or expanding various bilateral cooperative projects. Over the past decades, Taiwan has organized special classes for military officers from its diplomatic allies. During the Cold War in the 1960s, it sponsored training classes for grassroots military personnel for countries in Latin America, Middle East and Africa for the anti-communist cause. Many of those students later emerged as top leaders or prominent politicians in their countries. In recent years, the courses have focused on topics related to political and economic developments. Since the 1980s, Taiwan has also been hosting special classes for senior military and law enforcement officers from its diplomatic allies. Ma said that during his three state visits to Central and South America since his inauguration in May 2008, he has met with many 'graduates' of various training classes organized by Taiwan in past years. 'It was a special feeling to meet them in their home countries and I believe that all those training classes have helped to forge significant friendships between Taiwan and its diplomatic allies,' Ma said. Ma said recently that in addition to training classes for military personnel from diplomatic allies, Taiwan also plans to open classes for economic, agricultural and health care personnel from its allies. 