British and US representatives during a WHO meeting on Friday voiced support for Taiwan’s participation in the global health organization, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
“We recognize the need to strengthen vaccine confidence, and to address the role of mis- and disinformation. Accelerating vaccine uptake and demand is critical to achieving COVID-19 vaccination goals, to future emergency responses and to ongoing efforts to combat vaccine-preventable diseases,” said Loyce Pace, assistant secretary for global affairs at the US Department of Health and Human Services.
“In this regard, the United States appreciates the example of Taiwan in its COVID-19 response as well as its support to many around the world. We urge WHO to be fully inclusive of all partners, including Taiwan, as we take our collective work forward in responding to global health emergencies,” she said.
Photo: Reuters
According to information provided by the ministry, Danny Andrews, head of the health division at the British Permanent Mission to the UN Office in Geneva, Switzerland, told Friday’s meeting that “we also stress the inclusivity in WHO’s governance, given the impact of global health emergencies, we must draw on all voices and everyone with experiences to share to deal with health emergencies.”
Diplomatic ally the Marshall Islands expressed gratitude to Taiwan during the meeting.
“The Marshall Islands wishes to extend its most sincere gratitude once again to the WHO, and the numerous donor countries and partners such as the United States, the Republic of China (Taiwan) for their continued support and assistance to the Marshall Islands,” said Samuel Lanwi, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Marshall Islands to the UN Office in Geneva.
The ministry said that over the past few days allies, including St Kitts and Nevis, Nauru, Haiti, Honduras and Paraguay, have voiced support for Taiwan joining the WHO as an observer.
Officials representing Japan and the EU have also called on the WHO to be more inclusive.
Hiroki Nakatani, an adviser from the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, said that “it is important not to make a geographical vacuum by creating a situation where a specific region cannot join WHO as an observer of WHA,” referring to the World Health Assembly, the decisionmaking body of the WHO.
The US Department of State yesterday criticized Beijing over its misrepresentation of the US’ “one China” policy in the latest diplomatic salvo between the two countries over a bid by Taiwan to regain its observer status at the World Health Assembly, the decisionmaking body of the WHO. “The PRC [People’s Republic of China] continues to publicly misrepresent U.S. policy,” Department of State spokesman Ned Price wrote on Twitter. “The United States does not subscribe to the PRC’s ‘one China principle’ — we remain committed to our longstanding, bipartisan one China policy, guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, Three Joint Communiques, and
FATES LINKED: The US president said that sanctions on Russia over Ukraine must exact a ‘long-term price,’ because otherwise ‘what signal does that send to China?’ US President Joe Biden yesterday vowed that US forces would defend Taiwan militarily in the event of a Chinese attack in his strongest statement to date on the issue. Beijing is already “flirting with danger,” Biden said following talks with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo, in which the pair agreed to monitor Chinese naval activity and joint Chinese-Russian exercises. Asked if Washington was willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan, he replied: “Yes.” “That’s the commitment we made,” Biden said. “We agreed with the ‘one China’ policy, we signed on to it ... but the idea that it can be
SUBTLE? While Biden said the US policy of ‘strategic ambiguity’ on Taiwan had not changed, the group targeted China and Russia without naming them Leaders of Australia, India, Japan and the US yesterday warned against attempts to “change the status quo by force,” as concerns grow about whether China could invade Taiwan. The issue of Taiwan loomed over a leadership meeting in Tokyo of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) nations — the US, Japan, Australia and India — who stressed their determination to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific region in the face of an increasingly assertive China, although Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the group was not targeting any one country. The four leaders said in a joint statement issued after their talks
INFORMATION LEAKED: Documents from Xinjiang purportedly showed top leaders in Beijing calling for a forceful crackdown and even orders to shoot to kill Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday held a videoconference with UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet as she visited Xinjiang during a mission overshadowed by fresh allegations of Uighur abuses and fears she is being used as a public relations tool. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been accused of detaining more than 1 million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in the region as part of a years-long crackdown the US and lawmakers in other Western nations have labeled a “genocide.” China denies the allegations. Bachelet was expected to visit the cities of Urumqi and Kashgar on a six-day tour. The US
RSS