Staff writer, with CNA, NEW YORK
Nicaraguan Minister of Foreign Affairs Denis Moncada spoke in support of Taiwan’s inclusion in the UN on the last day of the General Debate on Monday.
Near the end of his 24-minute address, Moncada said it was essential to apply the “principle of universality” on humanitarian grounds amid the COVID-19 pandemic so that Taiwan can participate in the corresponding mechanisms and meetings under the UN system.
Photo: AP
Nicaragua was the 13th of Taiwan’s 15 diplomatic allies in the UN to voice support for the nation’s inclusion in the organization during the UN General Assembly’s 76th session in New York.
The number was the highest since 2017, when 15 of 20 diplomatic allies spoke up in support of Taiwan during the General Debate.
The only two allies that did not speak up for Taiwan this year were Honduras and the Holy See.
Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez did not mention Taiwan in his address on Wednesday. It was the sixth consecutive year that the Central American ally did not mention Taiwan at the annual event.
Instead, Honduras each year sends a letter to the UN secretary-general to support Taiwan’s participation in the UN.
The Holy See, Taiwan’s only official diplomatic ally in Europe, is not a UN member, but an observer and rarely speaks on political issues at UN meetings.
Taiwan also received indirect support from countries with which it does not have formal diplomatic relations.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga told the General Assembly on Saturday that there should not be a “geographical blank space” when the world deals with issues at the World Health Assembly, as all countries and regions should be able to share knowledge in a free and transparent fashion.
Japanese officials use the phrase “geographical blank space” when referring to Taiwan at international events.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
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The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
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