Fifteen of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies have voiced support for its attendance at this year’s World Health Assembly (WHA) as an observer, the WHO said yesterday as it opened the first meeting of the 71st WHA in Geneva, Switzerland.
Proposals for a supplementary agenda item “inviting Taiwan to participate in the WHA as an observer” were received last month and earlier this month from Belize, Tuvalu, Nauru, Eswatini, the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, El Salvador, Saint Christopher and Nevis, Nicaragua, Paraguay, the Solomon Islands, Burkina Faso, Haiti, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Saint Lucia, the WHO said in a statement.
The proposal has been submitted to the WHA’s General Committee for review, it said.
Photo: AFP
If the assembly decides to discuss the proposal, it would issue documents related to it, the statement said.
The proposals are listed in the form of direct quotes and do not represent the opinions of the WHO Secretariat, a note to the statement said, adding that the WHO addresses Taiwan as “Taiwan, China.”
Representatives from Germany, Honduras and Japan yesterday voiced support for Taiwan to have observer status during their speeches to the assembly as well as, for the first time ever, Canada and New Zealand.
Photo: AFP
Taipei Cultural and Economic Delegation Geneva Office Director-General Bob Chen (陳龍錦) said proposals would be discussed in two-against-two debates, and that four of Taiwan’s allies have agreed to speak for it.
While Eswatini and the Solomon Islands would lobby at the General Committee for Taiwan’s participation, the Marshall Islands and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines would put forward a motion to debate Taiwan’s participation if the committee vetoes the proposal, Chen said.
Taiwan in 1997 began to seek an invitation to the WHA’s annual meetings and was finally invited as an observer in 2009, under the former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration. It received invitations through 2016.
Photo: CNA, screen grab from the Internet
However, Beijing blocked such invites last year and again this year to show its displeasure with the Democratic Progressive Party administration of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS