The US pledged to vote for Taiwan's bid to become an observer in next month's World Health Assembly (WHA) if the assembly puts Taiwan's application for observer status on its agenda, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday.
Taiwan will make its eighth application to become a World Health Organization (WHO) observer in the WHA, the organization's top decision-making body, which will meet in Geneva from May 17 to May 22.
As with previous attempts, Taiwan has asked its diplomatic allies to present the proposal in the assembly to include Taiwan's application on the assembly's agenda. China, as before, is expected to mobilize its allies to oppose the proposal.
Taiwan's bid has never even made it to a vote on whether its application for observer status should be included on the agenda.
But this time, said Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Michael Kau (
The step is potentially risky because Taiwan, in calling for the vote, would force a stronger reaction from China, which has more than 160 allies compared with Taiwan's 26. The WHO has 192 members.
Even if the WHA includes Taiwan's bid on its agenda through the vote, Taiwan will still need a simple majority vote in the assembly to become an observer, Kau said.
Despite the US' support for Taiwan's bid, Minister of Foreign Affairs Mark Chen (
Out of Taiwan's 26 allies, the Holy See, the country's only ally in Europe, will not be able to vote because it is not a WHO member.
Japan, however, could follow the US' lead and support the bid.
"There might be some countries that would express their backing for Taiwan's health bid by not casting ballots. We have to strive to gain more support from EU countries," Kau said.
"We have not reached a conclusion yet. If we call for the vote and we lose, we will still have the US and Japan showing their backing for us. It would be an achievement itself," Chen said.
The US, Japan and big EU countries together contributed more than 50 percent of the WHO's annual budget. Noting the difficulties in garnering sufficient votes from non-allies, Kau said Taiwan should focus on lobbying for support from "quality countries" which have more decisive power in the WHO.
The WHO's Geneva headquarters issued a statement Wednesday saying the Chinese media had misquoted the WHO Director-General Lee Jong-wook as saying only "states" can be admitted as members or observers of the health body, Kau said.
Lee made the remarks regarding Taiwan's WHO bid when visiting Beijing Monday.
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