Former US secretary of health and human services Tom Price is to arrive in Taiwan on Sunday to speak at a workshop on tuberculosis organized by Taiwan and the US, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
Price, who headed the department from February to September 2017, is to attend the opening ceremony of a four-day Global Cooperation Training Framework workshop titled “International Workshop on the Programmatic Management of Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis” on Tuesday next week.
Established in June 2015, the Global Cooperation Training Framework supports bilateral cooperation in international public health, humanitarian assistance and other global issues in the Indo-Pacific region.
Price has long supported Taiwan’s participation at international events and he expressed US support for the nation’s participation at the World Health Assembly (WHA) when he addressed the assembly in 2017, the ministry said.
The WHA is the WHO’s decisionmaking body.
Price’s visit ahead of this year’s WHA again shows the US’ support for Taiwan’s WHA participation and its recognition of the nation’s contributions to world health, the ministry said.
The WHA is to hold its 72nd annual session from May 20 to 28 in Geneva, Switzerland.
Government officials have said that Taiwan is “unlikely” to be invited again this year due to Chinese obstruction.
Taiwan participated at the WHA as an observer under the name “Chinese Taipei” from 2009 to 2016 amid closer relations with China under the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration, which prioritized reducing tensions and building friendly ties with Beijing.
However, since 2017, China has persuaded the WHO not to invite Taiwan, in line with its stance on cross-strait relations after President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of the Democratic Progressive Party took office.
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