The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) on Friday expressed its gratitude to the nation’s allies, like-minded countries and friends for showing their support for Taiwan to join the UN and refuting China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758.
The 79th session of the UN General Assembly opened on Sept. 10, and the General Debate, which began on Sep. 24, ended on Monday last week.
The ministry in a statement thanked countries which supported Taiwan’s bid to join the UN.
Photo: Yang Cheng-yu, Taipei Times
Top government officials of Taiwan’s allies Paraguay, the Marshall Islands, Palau, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Eswatini, Tuvalu, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia and Belize have voiced support for Taiwan in the General Debate and Summit of the Future, it said.
Officials from the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Saint Lucia said that Resolution 2758 does not preclude Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the UN system, the ministry said.
During their addresses to the General Debate, US President Joe Biden said the US’ was committed to maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong said Australia has consistently pressed China on peace and stability in the Strait.
US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, in a hearing at the US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs held before the UN General Debate, said that China was using Resolution 2758 as a diplomatic tool to suppress Taiwan, the ministry said.
Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Caspar Veldkamp also said at the Dutch House of Representatives that Resolution 2758 does not involve Taiwan, it said.
The G7 foreign ministers issued a joint statement reiterating that maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is indispensable to international security and prosperity, the ministry said, adding that they also expressed their support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations.
The ministry said President William Lai (賴清德) was also invited for the first time to give a pre-recorded speech at the annual Concordia Summit on the sidelines of the 79th UN General Assembly.
It also expressed gratitude for the Legislative Yuan’s support, including from a cross-party delegation that attended sideline events in New York and effectively communicated Taiwanese public’s strong wish to join the UN system.
Op-eds by Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) and Taiwan’s representative offices, as well as interviews with Taiwanese representatives, informing people about Taiwan’s bid to join the UN have been published in mainstream international media 455 times this year, the ministry said.
Resolution 2758 did not mention Taiwan and has nothing to do with Taiwan, nor can it be used to prevent Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the UN system or other international organizations, the ministry said.
“Taiwan has the determination, willingness and capability to contribute to international society,” it said, adding that continuous exclusion of Taiwan from global multilateral efforts would be a loss for all humankind, and unfavorable for achieving sustainable development goals.
The ministry urged the UN not to succumb to pressure from China, and accept Taiwan’s full participation, to meet its “leave no one behind” core principle for the implementation of the UN sustainable development goals.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening 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) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS