Official predicts US and Japan will vote in favor of WHO bid

Taiwan will call a vote at next month's World Health Assembly (WHA) on whether the assembly should accept the country's eighth application for observer status, Minister of Foreign Affairs Mark Chen (陳唐山) said yesterday.

It would be the first time Taiwan has called for such a vote since it made its first application for World Health Organization(WHO) observer status in 1997.

The WHA, the WHO's top decision-making body, will meet in Geneva from May 17 to May 22.

Despite China's opposition to Taiwan's bid to enter the WHO, the government decided to call the vote because the US and Japan have promised firm support, Chen said.

Taiwan's overseas embassies and representative offices have begun lobbying their host countries to support Taiwan's WHO bid, Chen added.

Chen made the remarks at a reseption held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he formally met with diplomats for the first time since he assumed his post earlier this month.

Former minister of foreign affairs Eugene Chien (簡又新) and his wife Wang Kuei-jung (王圭容) also attended the party to bid farewell to the diplomats. Chien simply thanked the public for its interest when asked about his career plans.

American Institute in Taiwan deputy director David Keegan and Japan Interchange Association in Taipei Representative Katsuhisa Uchida held a closed-door meeting with a senior ministry official to discuss Taiwan's WHO bid after the party.

The meeting lasted about half an hour.

The senior official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the US has pledged casting its ballot in support of Taiwan should it call a vote in the WHA.

Japan is likely to follow the US' lead in supporting Taiwan, but it is yet unclear whether Japan will also vote in support of Taiwan.

Japanese government agencies' opinions about whether to back Taiwan's WHO bid remain divided, with some wanting to boost support for Taiwan, while others want to maintain the status quo, according to the official.

The ministry has also focused on seeking support from EU countries for the WHO bid, added the official, noting that China has 162 allies and that Taiwan only has 26.

There might be some countries that show their support for Taiwan by not casting their vote or not attending the vote at the assembly.

Describing the country's long-time efforts to enter the WHO as a "moral crusade," the official, who played a pivotal role in strategy making for the WHO bid over the years, appealed for the international community to face their conscience when looking at Taiwan's isolation from the health body.

Barring Taiwan from the WHO is effective "health apartheid," the official remarked.

According to ministry statistics, in addition to Taiwan's 23-million people, the nation's health agencies have to deal with health matters for more than 27 million international air passengers and 225,000 international flights annually.

If Beijing would soften its position on Taiwan's WHO application as the assembly starts on May 17, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) is likely to deliver more goodwill to China in his inauguration speech on May 20, the official said.