Taiwanese and US officials on Friday discussed ways to expand Taiwan’s participation in UN agencies and other international forums as they held high-level talks in Washington, a US Department of State spokesperson said in a news statement.
The talks focused on evaluating efforts to endorse Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the World Health Assembly in May and the International Civil Aviation Organization Assembly last month, the statement said.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials and their US counterparts from the State Department agreed that they need to bolster engagement with like-minded partners in the UN bodies, as well as at UN headquarters and elsewhere, to “increase awareness of Taiwan’s positive contributions to the international community,” the statement said.
Photo: Tyrone Siu, Reuters
They also exchanged views on public health, civil aviation safety, climate change, the environment, telecommunications, intellectual property, economic cooperation and freedom of religion or belief, the statement said.
The US applauded Taiwan’s contributions to the international community and reiterated its commitment to helping Taiwan gain meaningful participation in international forums, in accordance with long-standing US policy, the statement said.
Taiwan, officially named the Republic of China, has not been a UN member since losing its seat to the People’s Republic of China in 1971, and is therefore not a member of the UN bodies.
However, Taiwan participated as an observer in the annual WHO event from 2009 to 2016, when the government, at the time led by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), fostered closer ties with China.
Since President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of the Democratic Progressive Party took office in 2016, Beijing has ramped up its effort to isolate Taiwan from the international community.
Taiwan last participated in an event at the UN’s aviation safety agency in 2013.
In Taipei, the ministry thanked the US for its strong backing for Taiwan and said that such support was a testament to the solid partnership between the two sides.
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