Taiwan should be included in world health matters, Estonia said in a statement on Tuesday at the World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva, Switzerland.
In her address on the third day of the 76th WHA, the WHO’s annual decisionmaking forum, Estonian Minister of Health Riina Sikkut said that her country believed nations should “facilitate inclusion and meaningful participation of all partners, including Taiwan, and this would benefit global health.”
Estonia was one of 10 countries to support Taiwan’s inclusion at the session, with the others being Lithuania, Luxembourg and Germany, which have no formal diplomatic relations with the nation, and diplomatic allies Haiti, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Paraguay, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
Photo: Reuters
Marshall Islands Minister of Health Joe Bejang made a personal plea to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“We should stop the politics, stop the neglect, for we are all human beings and we should be focusing on achieving the highest possible standard of health for all people,” Bejang said. “Let Taiwan help.”
The support came a day after the WHA rejected a proposal from Taiwan’s diplomatic allies, including Belize, Nauru, the Kingdom of Eswatini and the Marshall Islands, to put the issue of Taiwan being granted observer status on the WHA’s agenda.
China objected to the proposal.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs held a separate Global Collaboration and Training Framework forum in Geneva to highlight the importance of Taiwan’s involvement in the WHO.
Minister of Health and Welfare Hsueh Jui-yuan (薛瑞元) said that no country is safe from pandemics that are without historical precedent, and the Preparedness and Resilience for Emerging Threats initiative, touted by the WHO, was only implemented after the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Loyce Pace, assistant secretary at the US Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Global Affairs, said that the world should learn from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Health monitoring and data systems, as well as innovation in pandemic prevention, are important to prepare before the next great pandemic, Pace said.
The US affirms the importance of bilateral, regional and other collaborations that the US conducted with Taiwan, including through the Global Collaboration and Training Framework, Pace said.
Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Geneva Director-General Nicole Su (蘇瑩君) said that the forum highlighted what Taiwan could bring to the table given its strengths in the medical sector to solve global problems and improve multilateral partnerships.
In his National Day Rally speech on Sunday, Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) quoted the Taiwanese song One Small Umbrella (一支小雨傘) to describe his nation’s situation. Wong’s use of such a song shows Singapore’s familiarity with Taiwan’s culture and is a perfect reflection of exchanges between the two nations, Representative to Singapore Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) said yesterday in a post on Facebook. Wong quoted the song, saying: “As the rain gets heavier, I will take care of you, and you,” in Mandarin, using it as a metaphor for Singaporeans coming together to face challenges. Other Singaporean politicians have also used Taiwanese songs
NORTHERN STRIKE: Taiwanese military personnel have been training ‘in strategic and tactical battle operations’ in Michigan, a former US diplomat said More than 500 Taiwanese troops participated in this year’s Northern Strike military exercise held at Lake Michigan by the US, a Pentagon-run news outlet reported yesterday. The Michigan National Guard-sponsored drill involved 7,500 military personnel from 36 nations and territories around the world, the Stars and Stripes said. This year’s edition of Northern Strike, which concluded on Sunday, simulated a war in the Indo-Pacific region in a departure from its traditional European focus, it said. The change indicated a greater shift in the US armed forces’ attention to a potential conflict in Asia, it added. Citing a briefing by a Michigan National Guard senior
CHIPMAKING INVESTMENT: J.W. Kuo told legislators that Department of Investment Review approval would be needed were Washington to seek a TSMC board seat Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said he received information about a possible US government investment in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and an assessment of the possible effect on the firm requires further discussion. If the US were to invest in TSMC, the plan would need to be reviewed by the Department of Investment Review, Kuo told reporters ahead of a hearing of the legislature’s Economics Committee. Kuo’s remarks came after US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Tuesday said that the US government is looking into the federal government taking equity stakes in computer chip manufacturers that
CLAMPING DOWN: At the preliminary stage on Jan. 1 next year, only core personnel of the military, the civil service and public schools would be subject to inspections Regular checks are to be conducted from next year to clamp down on military personnel, civil servants and public-school teachers with Chinese citizenship or Chinese household registration, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. Article 9-1 of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) stipulates that Taiwanese who obtain Chinese household registration or a Chinese passport would be deprived of their Taiwanese citizenship and lose their right to work in the military, public service or public schools, it said. To identify and prevent the illegal employment of holders of Chinese ID cards or
RSS