World Health Assembly (WHA) President Ahmed Robleh Abdilleh, who is also Djibouti’s health minister, said in a statement that a proposal sent by 13 WHO members asking for Taiwan’s membership in as an observer would not be included in its official agenda.
Tawan is excluded from most global groups due to Beijing’s objections. China insists that Taiwan should not be treated as an independent country, as it regards the island as a province of its own.
Tawan argues that her exclusion from the WHO has hampered efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, despite being allowed to attend some WHO technical meetings.
Assembly President Abdilleh said the decision followed a recommendation from the General Committee which considered the proposal in a closed meeting on Sunday.
“The political and legal basis for Taiwan’s participation in the AMS ceases to exist,” Chen Xu, China’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, told the assembly shortly before the decision. “This political manipulation is bound to meet with opposition from all parties.”
However, the United States and Great Britain have shown their support for the inclusion of Taiwan.
Loyce Pace, US envoy to the assembly, said Taiwan has been a vital partner contributing constructively to global health and that the United States “deeply regrets” its exclusion from the assembly as an observer.
“There is clearly no health crisis that justifies the exclusion of Taiwan as an observer from the WHO,” British Health Minister Sajid Javid told the assembly.
This year’s assembly, which is joined by thousands of delegates, including nearly 100 from China, will discuss key reforms such as changes in WHO funding.
China began blocking Taiwan’s participation in the WHA from 2017, marking the end of a warmer period of relations between Beijing and Taipei.
Last week, Taiwan expressed its “displeasure and regret” after the World Health Organization failed to invite it to attend the assembly, amid diplomatic pressure from China to isolate the island. (Reporting by Mrinalika Roy and Emma Farge, editing by William Maclean and Hugh Lawson)