Taiwan yesterday thanked 10 of its diplomatic allies for supporting the nation’s aspirations to participate in the UN during the just-concluded 80th session of the UN General Assembly’s General Debate.
Senior officials from Paraguay, the Marshall Islands, Eswatini, Palau, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, Tuvalu, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia and Guatemala spoke up on Taiwan’s behalf during their respective addresses at the general debate or through letters to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
Haiti is Taiwan’s only diplomatic ally among the 12 official UN members that did not bring up the issue of Taiwan over the past years.
Photo: AFP
The Caribbean country has been embroiled in widespread political, economic and security crises since former Haitian president Jovenel Moise was assassinated at his home in July 2021.
An unnamed diplomatic source previously said this is why the Haiti representatives at the UN focused more on the continuing unrest in their country during their UN address in recent years.
The Holy See, Taiwan’s only diplomatic ally in Europe, is not a member of the UN, but an observer and rarely speaks on political issues during UN-related meetings.
Meanwhile, Czech President Petr Pavel, in his UN speech, again warned that rising tensions in the Taiwan Strait threaten global security and trade, the ministry said, adding that it was the second time since 2023 that Pavel has voiced similar concerns in the General Debate.
Outside of the UN meetings, others have also adopted motions in support of Taiwan’s participation in international organizations, the ministry said.
These include the US Senate, House of Representatives and 30 US state-level lawmaking bodies, the Dutch House of Representatives, the Congress of the Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis, and the Guatemalan Congress.
The ministry reiterated Taiwan’s stance that UN Resolution 2758, which Beijing has used as the basis to claim sovereignty over Taiwan, does not mention Taiwan.
It also does not state that Taiwan is part of China nor give the People’s Republic of China (PRC) the right to represent Taiwan in the UN, the ministry said.
“Only Taiwan’s democratically elected government can represent the country’s 23 million people in the UN,” it said.
It added that since the US first began to criticize Beijing’s misinterpretation of the 1971 UN resolution in April last year, 19 other countries and the EU have all followed suit.
Resolution 2758 was adopted by the 26th UN General Assembly in 1971 to address the issue of China’s representation at the international body.
It resulted in Taiwan, officially named the Republic of China, losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taipei has since been excluded from participating in the international organization and its affiliates.
Washington has repeatedly accused Beijing of making “coercive efforts” to exclude Taiwan from the international community with the “misuse” of UN Resolution 2758.
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