Senior Democratic and Republican US senators introduced legislation on Wednesday seeking Washington’s backing for Taiwan’s admission to the Inter-American Development Bank as a non-borrowing member.
The bill is part of an ongoing effort in the US Congress and elsewhere in Washington to boost the international profile of Taiwan, as tensions escalate between the nation and China.
The measure would require the US Department of State to provide Congress with a strategy for securing diplomatic support for Taiwan’s membership, which would be a promotion from its observer status.
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The US Senate had passed legislation directing the state department to develop a strategy to assist Taiwan in obtaining observer status at the World Health Assembly, the WHO’s decisionmaking body.
“We are committed to continue working to ensure the United States does everything in its power to champion Taiwan’s international engagement and demonstrate our unwavering commitment to the people of Taiwan,” US Senator Robert Menendez, Democratic chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement.
China in the past few weeks has staged repeated air missions over the Taiwan Strait.
Menendez introduced the bill with Democratic US senators Tim Kaine and Ed Markey, and Republican US senators Jim Risch, Jim Inhofe and Marco Rubio.
Risch is the top Republican on the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and Inhofe is the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The lawmakers said that Taiwan has demonstrated that it can play an important role in the western hemisphere, and contributes to the growth of economies in Latin America and the Caribbean.
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