Two of Taiwan's diplomatic allies, Belize and Sao Tome and Principe, have proposed to the World Health Organization (WHO) Secretariat to add Taiwan's application for observer status as a supplementary item to the provisional agenda of the World Health Assembly (WHA), the WHO's top decision-making body.
Taiwan will launch its ninth bid to join the WHA when the assembly opens in Geneva next Monday. The event will last no later than May 25.
Government officials are making last-minute efforts to rally support from the international community. Today, Minister of Health Hou Sheng-mou (
Government sources involved in the bid said they are working toward the goal of arranging meetings for Hou with delegates from the US and other countries on the sidelines of the WHA.
The Central News Agency (CNA) reported from Geneva that Sao Tome and Principe and Belize, when proposing to the WHO Secretariat to add Taiwan's application for observership to the WHA agenda, adopted the title "Taiwan" to represent the applicant.
An unnamed official told the news agency that, as the WHA begins next Monday, the assembly's General Committee, which starts at 11:30am on the same day, will look into Sao Tome and Principe and Belize's proposal when it discusses the addition of supplementary items to the provisional agenda of the WHA.
The proposal is also expected to be discussed during the WHA's second plenary meeting, which will begin at 2:30pm on Monday. Last year, debates on Taiwan's bid for observer status lasted five and a half hours in the plenary meeting, forcing the assembly to postpone its original schedule.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it has not decided whether to mobilize the country's diplomatic allies to initiate debates on Taiwan's health bid in the plenary meeting this time. Past experience showed that such debates, carried out in turn by diplomatic allies of China and Taiwan, could be exhausting and cause delays in the WHA's agenda.
Meanwhile, a six-member lobby group, headed by Wu Shuh-min (
According to the CNA report from London, Wu's lobby group met with leading British medical experts and talked to the Financial Times and the BBC about Taiwan's health bid during their stay in the capital.
Edgar Lin (林俊義), Taiwan's representative to the UK, and leaders of Taiwanese communities in the UK hosted a banquet for Wu's group. The group stayed briefly in Paris, explaining to the French media Taiwan's efforts to participate in the WHO before their London leg.
The group is slated to travel to Berlin after their stay in Luxemburg and will arrive at Geneva on Saturday. They will join other FMPAT members and delegations from Taiwan in Geneva and plan to give pamphlets to people around Lake Geneva on Sunday afternoon.
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