The Foundation of Medical Professionals Alliance in Taiwan yesterday urged the government to take advantage of US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar’s visit to press for greater participation in international organizations.
Azar’s arrival in Taipei on Sunday marked the first official visit by a high-level US representative since US President Donald Trump on March 16, 2018, signed into law the Taiwan Travel Act. It was also the first high-level US visit to Taiwan since the nations severed diplomatic relations in 1979.
Taiwan’s experience with the 2003 SARS outbreak, the government’s effective communication with the public and the cooperation between the public and medical personnel prepared the nation to prevent a domestic outbreak of COVID-19, the foundation said.
The government has also respected individual rights and allowed society to operate as normal throughout the pandemic, and as a result the government has been able to assist other nations, it said.
Azar praised Taiwan’s pandemic response, and said he hoped his trip would spur closer cooperation on preventing and responding to health crises.
The foundation said the government should push to participate in international health-related affairs, and press the US to establish a new health organization, through which the nations could work to combat global health challenges.
Taiwan should also continue to press for participation in international organizations under the name “Taiwan,” including in the WHO, UNAIDS, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, it said.
Taiwan should also seek involvement in the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator and the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, it said.
The Japanese-language Sankei Shimbun on Sunday reported on speculations that the US and Taiwan might be in talks to form a new international health organization to replace the functions of the WHO.
The report cited an anonymous source as saying that Azar’s trip to Taiwan was likely for them to exchange ideas with Taiwanese officials about forming such an organization.
The source was cited as saying that the US had concerns over China’s influence in the WHO, which impaired its reliability, and that it was seeking like-minded nations to develop a new organization.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday denied the report, calling it “mere conjecture.”
Azar’s visit was aimed at discussing bilateral cooperation on health issues, as well as to discuss the nation’s success in handling the pandemic, the ministry said.
The US had striven for years to assist Taiwan in securing participation as an observer in the World Health Assembly, it said, adding that a new organization would contradict those efforts.
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