The US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on Wednesday unanimously passed a bill supporting Taiwan’s efforts to regain observer status at the World Health Assembly (WHA).
The bill was introduced on Jan. 29 by US senators Bob Menendez and Jim Inhofe, joint chairs of the US Senate Taiwan Caucus.
The act calls for the US Department of State to include additional information in its annual reports concerning Taiwan’s participation at the WHA as an observer.
Photo: Lu Yi-hsuan, Taipei Times
The reports should describe changes and improvements to plans to support Taiwan’s observer status at the WHA, it says.
Taiwan began seeking to participate in the WHA as an observer in 1997 and received an invitation each year to attend as an observer under the name of “Chinese Taipei” between 2009 and 2016.
Following the election of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in 2016, Taiwan’s engagement in the international community began facing increased resistance from China.
Taiwan’s invitation to the 2016 WHA was received late and included new language conditioning Taiwan’s participation based on the “one China” principle.
This year is the third consecutive year that Taiwan did not receive an invitation to the WHA due to Beijing’s obstruction.
Meanwhile, 15 of the nation’s 17 diplomatic allies and eight like-minded nations had spoken in favor of Taiwan’s participation at the WHA as the plenary session of the meeting concluded on Wednesday in Geneva, Switzerland.
They were the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Palau, Saint Lucia, Tuvalu, Haiti, Belize, Eswatini, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Nauru, the Solomon Islands, Paraguay, Honduras, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Guatemala.
The eight nations that also voiced direct or indirect support for Taiwan were the US, the UK, Japan, Canada, Australia, France, Germany and New Zealand.
Nicaragua and the Vatican were the nation’s only two diplomatic allies that did not speak in support of Taiwan’s WHA bid over the past three days, nor did they send letters to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to show their support prior to the opening of the assembly.
Taiwan’s only diplomatic ally in Europe, the Vatican, is not a member of the WHO, but an observer, and rarely speaks on political issues during the WHA.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said that although Nicaragua’s representative did not speak in support of Taiwan at the WHA, Nicaraguan Vice President Rosario Murillo issued a statement in support of Taiwan’s health-related aid and support to the Central American nation.
Each ally uses its own approach to show support for the nation, Wu said, for which Taiwan expresses its gratitude.
In a statement on Wednesday broadcast on Nicaragua’s national TV station, Murillo expressed gratitude to Taiwan for sending a team of chronic kidney disease experts to her nation to share their expertise and practical experience in fighting the disease.
Murillo thanked the government and Taiwanese for helping families in Nicaragua to improve their health and welfare.
Although Murillo did not directly voice her support for Taiwan’s WHA bid, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs saw the statement as support for the nation’s overall assistance.
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