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MOFA acknowledges setbacks in WHO bid

Foreign ministry officials yesterday acknowledged diplomatic setbacks as the nation failed to gain the full support of its 25 diplomatic allies to keep its membership application on the World Health Assembly (WHA) agenda.

The General Assembly on Monday afternoon voted 148-17 not to include Taiwan's application as a supplementary agenda item after a three-hour debate.

Although it was expected that most of the member-states would vote yes to close the debate, only 17 of Taiwan's 24 allies that were present in the meeting fought for the nation's bid.

Among Taiwan's allies, Costa Rica voted yes to delete Taiwan's bid from the agenda, while Nicaragua, Panama, the Marshall Islands and St. Lucia were absent from the assembly. The Dominican Republic was not eligible to vote.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Yang Tzu-pao (楊子葆) conceded that the ministry failed to secure all of its allies' votes, but described this year's effort as a big success because the debate and a vote on Taiwan's bid lasted for three hours -- the second-longest after the 2004 meeting.

"We should look at the situation from the arguments made by our allies, instead of the votes ... Our allies made strong arguments, and discussions on Taiwan's bid occupied the whole meeting," Yang said on Monday night in Geneva.

Yang said that Taiwan's strategy this year was to gain more visibility, exposure and a full discussion on the country's application in the WHA, while China wanted to limit such discussions and have the General Assembly close the issue after a two-on-two debate.

Over the past two years, the WHA's General Committee in the morning and General Assembly in the afternoon arranged two-on-two debates on Taiwan's bid, in which two of Taiwan's allies spoke on the country's behalf against two of China's allies.

After the two-on-two debates during this year's assembly, Belize, a Taiwan ally, spoke against the Russian Federation's motion of closing the debate and asked for a vote.

Taiwan's allies, including Belize, Paraguay, Nauru, the Solomon Islands and Gambia, spoke on the country's behalf, urging the WHO to grant Taiwan full membership while challenging the WHO Secretariat's authority to ignore the country's bid.

"The assembly is the only body that has the authority to accept or reject the application ... It's hypocritical to deny the health rights of the people living in Taiwan," the Solomon Islands delegate said during the meeting.

After-vote remarks

While voting against Taiwan's application, the US, Canada, Japan and Germany (on behalf of the EU) all made after-vote remarks, calling on the assembly to support Taiwan's participation in WHO-related technical meetings and the inclusion of the latest version of the International Health Regulations, which will be implemented on June 15.

Asked to comment on the situation, Chinese Ambassador to the UN in Geneva Sha Zukang (沙祖康) said the result of the vote was not a good sign for Taiwan.

"The absence of four allies in the meeting was not a good result for Taiwan. But as a Chinese, I feel sad. Personally speaking, I didn't rejoice over the victory," he said.

Yang said that Costa Rica later admitted to Taiwan that it had mistakenly voted to close the debate, but it was too late to call the chairperson's attention to the error.

The Marshall Island's delegate told MOFA that he was unable to leave his hotel because of serious diarrhea.

Yang admitted that the ministry did not take control of the different delegations before the assembly, and said it would continue to talk to its allies to get a better understanding of why they were absent.

Tuvalu's Health Minister Iakoba Italeli, who voted to support Taiwan's bid during Monday's meeting, said Taiwan took big steps forward each year in its fight for inclusion, while disagreeing with Sha that Taiwan should address the issue with China through negotiations, rather than embarrassing itself by putting it on an international forum and delaying the agenda.

"Some countries appeared annoyed [by the long debates], but the issue should be addressed publicly," he told the Taipei Times yesterday.

Meanwhile, in Taipei, Foreign Minister James Huang (黃志芳) said yesterday that although the US could not vote for Taiwan because of its policy, the US gave a balanced comment on Taiwan in its declaratory remarks after the vote.

"The US still supports Taiwan's application as a WHA observer and `meaningful participation' in the health body. Therefore, we think the US is quietly friendly to Taiwan joining the WHO," Huang said.

Additional reporting by Jewel Huang
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