Taiwan's WHO bid stands a good chance this year as support from the US and the European Parliament could trigger some "spillover" effect among other countries and offset China's perceived incremental increase in power on the world stage, said a UN-based ambassador yesterday.
"Taiwan's chance of success this year is much greater ... because the US and the European Union have indicated that they would support Taiwan's application," said Margaret Hughes Ferrari, ambassador from the permanent mission of St. Vincent and the Grenadines to the UN.
But when asked whether the perceived incremental increase in strength of China would serve as a barrier to Taiwan's WHO bid, Ferrari said, "Yes. That is why Taiwan can't get into the UN, because the developing countries in the main are intimidated by China."
"Unfortunately, most countries in the UN do not vote along moral lines. They vote along pragmatic lines. They see China as a major world power today and [feel] intimidated," Ferrari said.
"With China's increasing power, people become more intimidated and less likely to vote to support Taiwan's bid," she added.
Taiwan began its bid in 1997 to gain observer status at the World Health Assembly (WHA) -- the WHO's highest decision-making body -- but its efforts over the years have been thwarted due to China's repeated success in blocking the efforts to secure observer status for Taiwan at the WHA.
Ferrari talked to the Taipei Times for a group interview together with her counterparts from the Solomon Islands and Nauru yesterday morning before they met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs Eugene Chien (
But the three UN diplomats from Taiwan's diplomatic allies said the shift of the US and the EU position on Taipei's WHO bid could trigger certain countries to follow suit.
"If we have a shift in the US and EU positions, that can only help, because those countries as well may carry a lot of people with them," Ferrari said.
Jeremiah Manele, counselor of the Solomon Islands Mission to the UN, termed the related resolution passed by the US Congress and the European Parliament as "a step forward in terms of getting the support for Taiwan's bid to become a WHA observer."
"It may not be done in one year, but the hope of getting Taiwan in is much better with these two standing behind," said Vinci Clodumar, permanent representative of the Republic of Nauru to the UN.
Ferrari also termed Taiwan's move to apply for observer status at the WHA as "very astute politically, because it takes away the argument of `one China, one member.'"
Membership in the WHO, as an UN-affiliated agency, is limited to sovereign states, according to WHO constitution. But the rule of procedures of the WHA does not specify qualifications for its observers.
Taiwan, however, would need the support of at least half the WHO's 191 members for its bid to succeed.
The US State Department in an April report stated that "Taiwan ... does not have sufficient support among WHO member states for its observer bid.
The report was mandated by a law passed by the US Congress in March that urged the George W. Bush's administration to devise a way to secure observer status for Taiwan at the WHA meeting slated to be held in Geneva in mid-May.
Taiwan has recently changed the tactics of its WHO entry bid by advocating its participation as a "health entity" in an apparent move to dilute the sovereignty dispute with China as well as to call for the WHO to encompass a broader base.
Recently, the US State Department report threw cold water on Taiwan's chances of taking part in the WHO any time soon, citing China's repeated success in blocking efforts to secure observer status for Taiwan at the organization's annual meetings.
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