Taiwan and the US on Tuesday held a virtual forum to discuss support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in UN organizations and other international forums, a statement from the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said.
These include global public health, the environment and climate change, development assistance, technical standards and economic cooperation, it said.
The participants discussed the continuing efforts to reinstate Taiwan’s observer status at the World Health Assembly as an important platform for sharing Taiwan’s internationally recognized model for COVID-19 prevention with the world, the AIT said.
The US participants also lauded Taiwan’s US$250,000 pledge to combat the resurgence of Ebola in Africa, as well as ongoing collaboration under the Global Cooperation and Training Framework (GCTF), it said.
Such active involvement in global affairs demonstrates “Taiwan’s willingness and capacity to address global challenges through multilateral collaboration,” the statement said.
Taiwan pledged US$250,000 to help African nations combat the resurgence of Ebola in another virtual meeting last week that was co-organized by the US and regional offices of the WHO in Africa.
The GCTF is an initiative launched by Taiwan and the US in 2015 to bring Taiwanese expertise to the global stage in the face of the country’s exclusion from many international institutions because of pressure from Beijing.
Participants in the discussion included AIT Director Brent Christensen, Deputy to the US Ambassador to the UN Jeffrey Prescott and US Department of State Senior Bureau Official for International Organizations Erica Barks-Ruggles.
On the Taiwan side, participants included Ministry of Foreign Affairs Secretary-General Lily Hsu (徐儷文) and Deputy Representative to the US Wang Liang-yu (王良玉).
The virtual forum was the first between Taiwan and the US regarding Taiwan’s participation in international organizations since US President Joe Biden took office in January, ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) told a regular news conference yesterday.
“We thank the US for its consistent support of Taiwan’s international participation,” she said.
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