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
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS