The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday expressed its appreciation for the Australia-New Zealand Foreign and Defence Ministers Consultations’ (ANZMIN) joint statement reaffirming the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters and New Zealand Minister of Defense Judith Collins hosted Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Richard Marles and Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong in Auckland for the second ANZMIN on Friday.
The ministers issued a joint statement after the meeting, in which they reiterated the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and their shared opposition to unilateral changes to the “status quo,” the ministry said, adding that it welcomes and appreciates the statement.
Photo: AP
The joint statement says the ministers “called for the peaceful resolution of cross-Strait issues through dialogue, without the threat or use of force or coercion.”
“They also reiterated their will to continue deepening relations with Taiwan in the economic, trade and cultural fields, as well as enhancing development coordination in the Pacific,” it says.
The ministry said Australia and New Zealand are Taiwan’s important friends in the Indo-Pacific region, and that there has been great progress in bilateral relationships with the two nations in recent years.
Maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea has become a global consensus, so the ministry welcomes the international society’s continuous expression of concern and them taking action in protecting the rule-based international order, the ministry said.
Taiwan remains committed to promoting values-based diplomacy and jointly safeguarding democracy, peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific, it said.
In other news, the ministry yesterday said it welcomed a World Medical Association (WMA) delegation, which included WMA president Ashok Philip, council chair Jung Yul Park and secretary-general Otmar Kloiber.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) met with the delegation on Friday, welcoming them to Taiwan and expressing gratitude to the association for consistently supporting Taiwan’s participation in the WHO and its related mechanisms over the years, the ministry said.
Tien also said he hoped that Taiwan can cooperate with the WMA in other global healthcare issues and that Taiwanese physicians can form deeper partnerships with the association in the future, the ministry said.
“Taiwan is a force for good in the international society, willing to share our resources and experiences, such as donating medical resources to more than 80 countries during the [COVID-19] pandemic and pushing forward the ‘one country, one [medical] center’ program to help other countries improve their healthcare quality,” the ministry quoted Tien as saying.
Philip praised the nation’s advanced healthcare development and stressed the importance of Taiwan’s participation in the global health system, the ministry said.
South Korea had learned from Taiwan’s healthcare system, it cited Park as saying, adding that he had said he would be glad to see Taiwan included in international society.
Meanwhile, Kloiber said Taiwanese healthcare development ranks high and that its participation in the global public health system would be beneficial to the nation and the world, the ministry said.
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