Taiwan will continue to apply as a "health entity" this year for observership at the World Health Assembly (WHA), the highest decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO), Minister of Foreign Affairs Eugene Chien (簡又新) said on Friday.
The ministry has -- for the first time -- hired "international lawyers" familiar with operations of international organizations to polish official documents on Taiwan's WHO bid, Chien told reporters.
The document outlining the rationale behind Taiwan's bid is slated to be completed by the end of this month, Chien said.
Chien said it was a good sign last year when the US and Japan voiced support for Taiwan's application as a "health entity" for observership at the WHA.
Prior to the WHA meeting last May, Taiwan decided to apply for observer status in its capacity as a "health entity" in what officials termed as a move to mitigate opposition from China and other countries.
"Last year the US and Japan accepted our bid, and there was little reason why the Europeans found it unacceptable," Chien said.
Both Spain and France during the WHA steering committee's closed-door meeting last May spoke against the proposal to put Taiwan's case on the WHA agenda.
China last year ridiculed Taipei's unprecedented proposal to enter the WHA as a "health entity," saying such a term was absent from any of the WHO or WHA related rules.
The EU External Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten, in the latest issue of the European Voice,elaborated on the EU stance on Taiwan's WHO bid.
"The WHO has its own rules, and is only open to states. But we are happy with others to see whether Taiwan could be more involved in the WHO's work in a different way, because we recognize Taiwan is increasingly active in international aid and health issues," the Brussels-based weekly journal quoted Patten as saying.
Patten also said it's the EU's position to support Taiwan's membership in other international organizations "where there is a sufficient added value, economic or otherwise, to justify it, and where the organization's statutes allow it."
Chien said this year Taiwan has dropped the tactics it used last year to ask its allies to raise a motion at the WHO executive board meeting in January to put Taiwan's WHO bid on the provisional agenda for the WHA conference in May.
Geneva-based Taiwanese officials have said Taiwan will resume its previous practices in asking its allies to submit motions on the case shortly before this year's WHA opens in Geneva in May.
Membership of the WHO is limited to sovereign states, according to the WHO constitution. But the procedural rules of the WHA do not specify qualifications for its observers.
The WHO has given observer status to the Vatican, Liechtenstein, the Palestinian Authority and the International Red Cross.
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