The government is set to hold a news conference today to explain its response measures if the nation does not receive an invitation to attend the annual World Health Assembly (WHA) after the deadline for online registration ends today, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said yesterday.
This year’s WHA, an annual meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO, is to take place from May 22 to May 31 in Geneva, Switzerland, but the nation has not received an invitation from the WHO secretariat.
Since 2009, Taiwan has attended as an observer under the name “Chinese Taipei” following an agreement between the government of then-president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Beijing and the WHO.
However, due to a cooling of cross-strait relations after President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) took office in May last year, the nation received an invitation to last year’s summit shortly before the deadline for online registration ended.
For the first time since 2009, that invitation sparked controversy because it mentioned UN Resolution 2758, WHA Resolution 25.1 and the “one China” principle underlying the two documents.
Also yesterday, the Taiwan United Nations Alliance announced that it is to hold a news conference today to outline its plans to send a promotional team to Geneva on Friday next week to lobby for the nation’s entry into the WHO ahead of its general assembly.
Following past practice, the alliance’s team would continue to promote Taiwan’s bid for membership in the WHO near the venue of the WHA this year by distributing leaflets, a spokesperson for the team said.
No new progress has been made in efforts to get an invitation to attend this year’s WHA, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
Despite that, several nations friendly toward Taiwan which share similar ideals, including the US and Canada, have voiced their support for Taiwan’s presence as an observer, the ministry said.
Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lee (李大維) has said that the nation will fight at full strength until the last minute for the invitation.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
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