‘WIND IS BLOWING’: European lawmakers have called on their health ministers to request the World Health Assembly let Taiwan’s Chen Shih-chung participate

Taipei Times
Date: May 15, 2020
By: Lu Yi-hsuan and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer

Taiwan has not received an invitation to the 73rd session of the World Health Assembly (WHA), which is to be held virtually from Monday next week, and all of the nation’s diplomatic allies, except the Vatican, have tendered proposals to the WHO backing Taiwan’s bid for participation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.

In the past, some of the nation’s allies chose not to make formal appeals and instead made remarks at the decisionmaking body of the WHO, but this year those that could make proposals to back Taiwan’s WHA bid have all done so, ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) told a news briefing in Taipei, describing the development as a “home run.”

The Vatican, which is only an observer at the WHA, would voice its support for Taiwan through other methods, the ministry said.

In a letter addressed to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and signed by Saint Vincentian Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines said that Taiwan from 2009 to 2016 had been invited to the WHA, and has had meaningful and ongoing interactions with the WHO.    [FULL  STORY]