Officials of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies on Friday submitted a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in support of Taiwan’s participation in the UN.
The letter, signed by 10 of Taiwan’s 15 diplomatic allies, was submitted to Guterres by the representatives to the UN of Belize, Eswatini and Tuvalu.
The leaders of Belize, Eswatini, Haiti, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Tuvalu signed the letter, urging the UN to view Taiwan as a partner in the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and in reaching the Sustainable Development Goals.
The letter called for action to resolve the situation of 23 million Taiwanese being excluded from the UN system, lift the ban on Taiwanese and Taiwanese media from entering the UN headquarters and allow Taiwan to contribute to reaching global goals with dignity and parity.
Belizean Permanent Representative to the UN Lois Michele Young said she emphasized to Guterres that Taiwan should be allowed to participate in the World Health Assembly, the WHO’s decisionmaking body.
However, she cited Guterres as saying that according to UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, which recognizes Beijing as “the only legitimate representative of China to the UN,” Taiwan remains excluded.
Young said that the resolution is not in line with the current situation.
The UN held its 75th General Assembly from Sept. 15 to Wednesday last week.
Twelve of Taiwan’s 15 diplomatic allies in their statements voiced support for Taiwan’s bid to participate in the UN system, one country more than in last year’s assembly.
In addition to the countries that signed the joint letter, four others have written to Guterres individually, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
The Vatican, Taiwan’s only diplomatic ally in Europe, did not express a position on the matter.
China appears to have built mockups of a port in northeastern Taiwan and a military vessel docked there, with the aim of using them as targets to test its ballistic missiles, a retired naval officer said yesterday. Lu Li-shih (呂禮詩), a former lieutenant commander in Taiwan’s navy, wrote on Facebook that satellite images appeared to show simulated targets in a desert in China’s Xinjiang region that resemble the Suao naval base in Yilan County and a Kidd-class destroyer that usually docks there. Lu said he compared the mockup port to US naval bases in Yokosuka and Sasebo, Japan, and in Subic Bay
Police are investigating the death of a Formosan black bear discovered on Tuesday buried near an industrial road in Nantou County, with initial evidence indicating that it was shot accidentally by a hunter. The bear had been caught in wildlife traps at least five times before, three times since 2020. Codenamed No. 711, the bear received extensive media coverage last year after it was discovered trapped twice in less than two months in the Taichung mountains. After its most recent ensnarement last month, the bear was released in the Dandashan (丹大山) area in Nantou County’s Sinyi Township (信義). However, officials became concerned after the
The majority of parents surveyed in northern Taiwan favor the suspension of all on-site classes at schools from the junior-high level and below amid a surge in domestic COVID-19 infections, parent groups said yesterday. About 84.4 percent of respondents in a survey of 2,912 parents in northern Taiwan, where the outbreak is the most serious, said they supported suspending classes, the Action Alliance on Basic Education, the Taiwan Parents Protect Women and Children Association, and the Taiwan Love Children Association said. The groups distributed questionnaires to parents in New Taipei City, Taipei, Keelung, Taoyuan and Hsinchu city and county from Saturday morning
DETERRENCE: US National Security Council Indo-Pacific Coordinator Kurt Campbell said cross-strait affairs are on the agenda at the US-ASEAN Special Leaders’ Summit The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday thanked the Czech Senate for passing a resolution supporting Taiwan’s inclusion in the WHO and other international organizations for the second consecutive year. The resolution was passed on Wednesday with 51 votes in favor, one opposed and 11 abstentions. In addition to the WHO, it also called for Taiwan’s participation in the “meetings, mechanisms and activities” of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the International Civil Aviation Organization and Interpol. In its opening, the resolution states that the Czech Republic “considers Taiwan as one of its key partners in the Indo-Pacific region,” while noting its
RSS