Fifteen of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies have voiced support for its attendance at this year’s World Health Assembly (WHA) as an observer, the WHO said yesterday as it opened the first meeting of the 71st WHA in Geneva, Switzerland.
Proposals for a supplementary agenda item “inviting Taiwan to participate in the WHA as an observer” were received last month and earlier this month from Belize, Tuvalu, Nauru, Eswatini, the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, El Salvador, Saint Christopher and Nevis, Nicaragua, Paraguay, the Solomon Islands, Burkina Faso, Haiti, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Saint Lucia, the WHO said in a statement.
The proposal has been submitted to the WHA’s General Committee for review, it said.
Photo: AFP
If the assembly decides to discuss the proposal, it would issue documents related to it, the statement said.
The proposals are listed in the form of direct quotes and do not represent the opinions of the WHO Secretariat, a note to the statement said, adding that the WHO addresses Taiwan as “Taiwan, China.”
Representatives from Germany, Honduras and Japan yesterday voiced support for Taiwan to have observer status during their speeches to the assembly as well as, for the first time ever, Canada and New Zealand.
Photo: AFP
Taipei Cultural and Economic Delegation Geneva Office Director-General Bob Chen (陳龍錦) said proposals would be discussed in two-against-two debates, and that four of Taiwan’s allies have agreed to speak for it.
While Eswatini and the Solomon Islands would lobby at the General Committee for Taiwan’s participation, the Marshall Islands and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines would put forward a motion to debate Taiwan’s participation if the committee vetoes the proposal, Chen said.
Taiwan in 1997 began to seek an invitation to the WHA’s annual meetings and was finally invited as an observer in 2009, under the former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration. It received invitations through 2016.
Photo: CNA, screen grab from the Internet
However, Beijing blocked such invites last year and again this year to show its displeasure with the Democratic Progressive Party administration of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
DRONE CENTRAL: Taiwan aims to become Asia’s democratic hub for drones, with most exports focused on high-quality military-grade models, an official said Taiwan’s drone industry is expected to expand significantly by 2030, producing 100,000 units per month and exporting half of them, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Current drone production capacity is about 15,000 units per month, but the industry can quickly scale up as demand increases, Industrial Development Administration Director-General Chiou Chyou-huey (邱求慧) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s drone output grew 2.5-fold last year to NT$12.9 billion (US$408.3 million) under a government program to develop the uncrewed vehicle sector, he said. The Executive Yuan in October last year approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion into domestic production of uncrewed aerial
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
WARNING: China should stop engaging in actions that undermine regional peace and stability, as it would only build resentment among people across the Strait, the CGA said China has deployed more than 100 navy, coast guard and other vessels in waters from the Yellow Sea to the South China Sea and the western Pacific since US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) met in Beijing, National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday. “In this part of the world, #China is the one & only PROBLEM wrecking the #StatusQuo & threatening regional peace & stability,” Wu wrote on X. In a separate post, he said Beijing was coercing Taiwan’s maritime domain, calling it illegal and provocative, after the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) expelled a
RSS