The US is expected to maintain its long-term support for Taiwan’s efforts to join the WHO despite Washington’s withdrawal from the international organization, a Taiwanese diplomat said yesterday.
Jonathan Sun (孫儉元), director-general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of International Organizations, gave the assessment during a ministry briefing when asked if the US decision to leave the WHO could affect Taiwan’s cooperation with Washington in this area.
Taiwan was closely watching what the US would do before its official withdrawal from the WHO takes effect in January next year, especially given that it has yet to fully fill government positions, Sun said.
Photo: Reuters
US President Donald Trump’s administration has yet to assign senior officials to head the US Department of State’s Bureau of International Organization Affairs, which develops and implements US policy at the UN and in other multilateral organizations, he said.
However, the ministry took note that a US representative reiterated Washington’s support for Taiwan’s participation at the World Health Assembly (WHA), the decisionmaking body of the WHO, during a session of the WHO’s Executive Board from Feb. 3 to 11, he said.
A statement issued by the US following a US-Japan-South Korea foreign ministers meeting last month also reiterated Washington’s support for Taipei’s meaningful participation in international organizations, he said.
These showed that the US government’s long-held stance in this area had not changed since Trump returned to the White House, he said.
“We therefore expect US support for Taiwan’s WHA bid to continue,” he said.
UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq on Jan. 24 said that the US’ withdrawal was set in motion after Trump pledged on his first day in office to withdraw from the WHO and to put an end to future funding of the organization.
Trump has long accused WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of covering up China’s responsibility for the COVID-19 pandemic, while also calling the WHO “corrupt” and saying the US was paying more than its fair share to the organization.
Taiwan left the WHO in 1972 following a decision by UN members to expel the nation and recognize the People’s Republic of China as the only “legitimate representative of China.”
Since then, Taiwan has been unable to attend the WHA even as an observer due to Chinese pressure, except from 2009 to 2016, when relations with China were warmer under Taiwan’s then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government and Beijing supported Taiwan’s participation.
Taiwan has worked closely with its diplomatic allies and friendly nations, including the US, Japan and the EU, every year to push its bid to join the WHA.
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