Taiwan failed in its ninth bid to be included in the World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday as the World Health Assembly (WHA) decided not to list Taiwan's WHO bid on its agenda.
After a three-hour long debate on whether to include Taiwan in the WHA's agenda, the WHA's General Committee ruled to exclude the sensitive issue.
During the discussion in the General Committee yesterday, 54 countries spoke up on the issue. Twenty-one countries voiced their staunch support for Taiwan, whereas 33 countries opposed the nation's bid.
Remarkably, two nations without diplomatic ties with Taiwan -- Fiji and Papua New Guinea -- also backed Taiwan's bid.
Meanwhile, on Sunday Malawian Health Minister H.M. Ntaba cast some light on the memorandum of understanding which China and the WHO Secretariat signed to facilitate technical exchanges between Taiwan and the WHO.
According to Ntaba, WHO Director-General Lee Jong-wook told a meeting of Commonwealth health ministers that China accepted Taiwan's participation in the WHO, but only as part of China.
Although he did not unveil all details of the memorandum, Lee spent around six minutes introducing it at the beginning of the routine meeting of Commonwealth health ministers on Sunday.
The memo states that Taiwan can only seek technical assistance from the WHO via China, and that the WHO cannot send medical experts to Taiwan without Beijing's permission, Ntaba told Taiwanese reporters before a dinner banquet with delegates of Taiwan's diplomatic allies to the WHA.
"Lee said he hoped the health ministers understood that we now have a chance of getting Taiwan to participate in the WHO," Ntaba said.
After Lee's introduction of the memorandum of understanding, Ntaba raised the question of why the WHO did not discuss the memorandum with Taiwan.
"You must speak to Taiwan and tell us what Taiwan says about it," Ntaba told Lee.
Lee, however, evaded Ntaba's question by saying he would not spend the whole meeting talking about Taiwan.
The way Lee raised the topic of the memorandum of understanding was strange, Ntaba said.
"He was not asked about it. He did not have to talk about it. It was not on the agenda," the health minister said.
Ntaba said Lee probably mentioned the issue because he wanted to "test the waters."
also see stories:
Taiwanese support WHO bid in Geneva
China tries to explain memorandum
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
TRAGEDY STRIKES TAIPEI: The suspect died after falling off a building after he threw smoke grenades into Taipei Main Station and went on a killing spree in Zhongshan A 27-year-old suspect allegedly threw smoke grenades in Taipei Main Station and then proceeded to Zhongshan MRT Station in a random killing spree that resulted in the death of the suspect and two other civilians, and seven injured, including one in critical condition, as of press time last night. The suspect, identified as a man surnamed Chang Wen (張文), allegedly began the attack at Taipei Main Station, the Taipei Fire Department said, adding that it received a report at 5:24pm that smoke grenades had been thrown in the station. One man in his 50s was rushed to hospital after a cardiac arrest
ON ALERT: Taiwan’s partners would issue warnings if China attempted to use Interpol to target Taiwanese, and the global body has mechanisms to prevent it, an official said China has stationed two to four people specializing in Taiwan affairs at its embassies in several democratic countries to monitor and harass Taiwanese, actions that the host nations would not tolerate, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which asked him and Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) to report on potential conflicts in the Taiwan Strait and military preparedness. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) expressed concern that Beijing has posted personnel from China’s Taiwan Affairs Office to its
RSS