President Chen Shui-bian (
"The 23 million Taiwanese people should neither be separated from the international community nor be unable to serve its obligation to international organizations," Chen said when receiving a senior Norwegian congressional delegation.
"We also have to express our appreciation to congressmen from five Nordic countries, who recently acknowledged Taiwan's democratic achievements and during a teleconference last month promised to facilitate their governments' support for Taiwan's bid," Chen said.
Chen received Carl Hagen, chairman of Norway's right-wing Progress Party, at the Presidential Office. The president said that Taiwan should have a voice in the world health regulatory body and he hoped Hagen could use his clout to push the Norwegian government to support Taiwan's bid to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an observer.
"Only in this way can Taiwan contribute its experience and resources to world health development as well as the global epidemic control network, in which there now exists a hole due to Taiwan's absence," Chen said.
The WHA -- the WHO's governing body -- will convene its annual conference in Geneva next week and Taiwan's special delegation, led by Minister of Health Chen Chien-jen (
Previous efforts failed seven times because of Beijing's strong opposition.
According to the government's Ministry of Health, though it is not optimistic that Taiwan will achieve its goal, it is more likely this year that a vote may be held to decide Taiwan's application in the name of a sovereign health entity.
Chen said to Hagen that he hoped, if Norway could not express its explicit support for Taiwan's bid, it should at least refrain from speaking against the bid.
Meanwhile, Chen also promised that his inauguration speech will satisfy the expectations of both the domestic and international communities.
"Some people from the foreign and domestic communities continue to make suggestions to me about what I should or should not say in my speech," Chen said at a meeting with congressmen from the Netherlands.
"It has become a severe challenge and test for me. However, I am confident that I will deliver my new speech with wisdom and creativity to the approval of the majority of the domestic community as well as the broader international community," he said.
Chen also thanked the government of the Netherlands for adopting a parliamentary resolution last December proposing that the EU lift the bans restricting Taiwan's top government officials from visiting European countries, as well as maintaining the international weapons embargo against China.
Civil society groups yesterday protested outside the Legislative Yuan, decrying Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) efforts to pass three major bills that they said would seriously harm Taiwan’s democracy, and called to oust KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁). It was the second night of the three-day “Bluebird wintertime action” protests in Taipei, with organizers announcing that 8,000 people attended. Organized by Taiwan Citizen Front, the Economic Democracy Union (EDU) and a coalition of civil groups, about 6,000 people began a demonstration in front of KMT party headquarters in Taipei on Wednesday, organizers said. For the third day, the organizers asked people to assemble
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A woman who allegedly spiked the food and drinks of an Australian man with rat poison, leaving him in intensive care, has been charged with attempted murder, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. The woman, identified by her surname Yang (楊), is accused of repeatedly poisoning Alex Shorey over the course of several months last year to prevent the Australian man from leaving Taiwan, prosecutors said in a statement. Shorey was evacuated back to Australia on May 3 last year after being admitted to intensive care in Taiwan. According to prosecutors, Yang put bromadiolone, a rodenticide that prevents blood from
A Japanese space rocket carrying a Taiwanese satellite blasted off yesterday, but was later seen spiraling downward in the distance as the company said the launch attempt had failed. It was the second attempt by the Japanese start-up Space One to become the country’s first private firm to put a satellite into orbit, after its first try in March ended in a mid-air explosion. This time, its solid-fuel Kairos rocket had been carrying five satellites, including one from the Taiwan Space Agency and others designed by Japanese students and corporate ventures. Spectators gathered near the company’s coastal Spaceport Kii launch pad in Japan’s
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