A Taiwanese delegation’s visit to Geneva, Switzerland, to push for participation in the World Health Assembly (WHA) meeting was fruitful, despite suppression from China, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said yesterday.
The nation this year did not receive an invitation to the annual WHA meeting as an observer, but Chen nevertheless led a “WHA action team” composed of key ministry officials to attend peripheral meetings.
“We already stated that our purpose is to make friends, bring love with us and express Taiwan’s voice to the world,” Chen, who returned home yesterday, told a news conference.
Photo: CNA
He said he made many friends in Geneva and had fruitful discussions with the participating officials.
However, he expressed disappointment at being unable to attend the WHA meeting and said the nation is encountering tremendous difficulty in the face of China’s obstructionism.
China in its speeches at the assembly and debate session kept suppressing Taiwan by saying that “Taiwan is part of China” and that it would “fill the gap in global disease prevention [due to Taiwan’s exclusion from the WHO],” he said.
“We rejected its claims sternly, strongly and with anger,” he added.
In response to media queries for comments on his encounter with WHO director-general-elect Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of Ethiopia, Chen said he congratulated him and asked him to support Taiwan.
“Ghebreyesus replied: ‘I know,’” Chen said.
Chen said he thinks the encounter was important even though it was short, because “it is harder to be cold and detached when you look someone in the eyes,” and that he would not have had the chance to meet him if the delegation had stayed in Taiwan.
Chen said that he and his delegation held 59 talks with representatives from 31 nations and 28 international organizations on the sidelines of the WHA, the decision-making body of the WHO, conducting in depth in-depth talks about health and medical issues.
Twenty-one nations, including the US, Germany, Japan and Australia, spoke up for Taiwan at this year’s WHA, Chen said.
Through the team’s efforts during the trip, the nation can hopefully create a new model for global participation and join other nations in contributing to global health, he said.
Additional reporting by CNA
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