US senators Ted Cruz and Jeff Merkley on Thursday introduced a bill that seeks to facilitate Taiwan’s efforts to take part in the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
The bill, dubbed the draft “ensuring Taiwan aviation and safety act,” mandates that the US secretary of state regularly submit “an unclassified report” to the US Congress to detail the US government’s efforts to “ensure Taiwan’s meaningful participation in ICAO, including in ICAO triennial assembly sessions, conferences, technical working groups, meetings, activities and mechanisms.”
Under the bill, the US secretary of state would also be authorized to develop a strategy to secure Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the ICAO and instruct the US envoy to the UN agency to use their “voice and vote” to achieve that goal.
Photo: Bloomberg
The US envoy should also “seek to secure a vote at the next ICAO triennial assembly session on the question of Taiwan’s participation in that session,” the bill says.
The 41st edition of the ICAO triennial assembly started on Tuesday in Montreal. Taiwan was not invited.
Cruz said the ICAO cannot successfully pursue its mission to ensure aviation safety while excluding Taiwan.
“This exclusion, and the fact that it is the result of bowing to political pressure from the Chinese Communist Party, directly endangers ICAO’s credibility as a multilateral organization,” Cruz said in a news release.
Merkley said Taiwan has the fifth-largest airport in Asia and plays a major role in global aviation.
“Taiwan’s meaningful participation in ICAO will enable the organization to do its job better,” Merkley said. “The United States should use its voice and vote to support Taiwan’s inclusion in ICAO.”
In Taipei, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that China’s recent “acts of military provocations” in the seas and airspace around Taiwan had “gravely affected international air traffic.”
The ministry stressed the necessity for Taiwan to be included in the ICAO to ensure the safety of global civil aviation operations and called on the UN agency to allow for Taiwan’s participation.
The ministry thanked Latin American and Caribbean lawmakers in the Formosa Club for signing a letter urging the ICAO to allow Taiwan to meaningfully participate.
The ministry said that the letter was signed by 217 lawmakers from 16 countries, including Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay and Peru.
The legislatures of Belize, Guatemala and Saint Lucia — diplomatic allies of Taiwan — unanimously backed the call for the country’s inclusion, the ministry said.
Taiwan is a critical air traffic hub connecting Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia, and an indispensable part of the global system of air travel that should not have been excluded due to political considerations, the letter said.
By not allowing Taiwan to take part in the ICAO, the organization is denying Taiwan access to timely and comprehensive information, they said.
The lawmakers also condemned China’s air force and naval exercises around Taiwan in August, saying that the drills significantly disrupted global air traffic and trade.
The ICAO should act on its campaign of reconnecting the world by cooperating with Taiwan to make air travel safer, they said.
Additional reporting by Yang Cheng-yu
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
A global survey showed that 60 percent of Taiwanese had attained higher education, second only to Canada, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan easily surpassed the global average of 43 percent and ranked ahead of major economies, including Japan, South Korea and the US, data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for 2024 showed. Taiwan has a high literacy rate, data released by the ministry showed. As of the end of last year, Taiwan had 20.617 million people aged 15 or older, accounting for 88.5 percent of the total population, with a literacy rate of 99.4 percent, the data
CCP ‘PAWN’? Beijing could use the KMT chairwoman’s visit to signal to the world that many people in Taiwan support the ‘one China’ principle, an academic said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday arrived in China for a “peace” mission and potential meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), while a Taiwanese minister detailed the number of Chinese warships currently deployed around the nation. Cheng is visiting at a time of increased Chinese military pressure on Taiwan, as the opposition-dominated Legislative Yuan stalls a government plan for US$40 billion in extra defense spending. Speaking to reporters before going to the airport, Cheng said she was going on a “historic journey for peace,” but added that some people felt uneasy about her trip. “If you truly love Taiwan,
RSS