The government will conduct negotiations with China at an undisclosed location outside of Taiwan next month about the nation’s bid for observer status at the World Health Assembly (WHA), President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday.
“We will start formal negotiations on the issue next month at an overseas location, and not through the Straits Exchange Foundation [SEF] or the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait [ARATS],” Ma said on Thursday in an interview with the Chinese-language United Daily News.
In the interview, which was published yesterday, Ma said his administration had been putting great effort into obtaining observer status at the WHA in May, and hopefully the situation would change for the better.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Wang Yi (王毅) told CCTV on Wednesday that he was “cautiously optimistic” on Taiwan’s bid to join the WHA as an observer.
Declining to say where the negotiations would be held, Ma told the United Daily News the government would “handle the matter carefully.”
The president defended his policy of a “diplomatic truce” with China and flexible diplomacy and said he was confident that these policies were having a positive impact on cross-strait relations.
“[Beijing] cannot swallow Taiwan now, and why wouldn’t they give us room to breathe?” Ma said.
Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said yesterday the government would release more detailed information about the WHA negotiations at an appropriate time.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had no comment on the location of the talks with Beijing, ministry spokesman Henry Chen (陳銘政) said yesterday.
He said the ministry was actively seeking international support for this year’s bid for WHA observer status.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) said yesterday in a news conference ending a nine-day session of China’s parliament in Beijing: “In my government work report I made it clear that we will make fair and reasonable arrangements for Taiwan’s participation in international organizations that concern Taiwan’s interests through consultations.”
“We are willing to have consultations and coordination on this,” he said.
The WHA, the decision-making body of the WHO, is scheduled to meet from May 18 to May 27 in Geneva, Switzerland.
Taiwan has been seeking to re-enter the organization since 1997, but has been blocked by Beijing. In 2005, Beijing signed a memorandum of understanding with the WHO restricting Taiwan’s communication with the body.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JENNY W. HSU AND REUTERS
See CHINESE on page 3
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
RSS