CONSENSUS IN SUPPORT OF TAIWAN'S PARTICIPATION IN

C O N F I D E N T I A L AIT TAIPEI 000948 SIPDIS SIPDIS HHS FOR MARK ABDOO, GENEVA FOR DHOHMAN; BEIJING FOR DSELIGSOHN E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/27/2012 TAGS: WHO TBIO PREL CH TW SUBJECT: CONSENSUS IN SUPPORT OF TAIWAN'S PARTICIPATION IN WHO REF: A. TAIPEI 00805 ¶B. TAIPEI 00783 ¶C. TAIPEI 00768 Classified By: Acting Economic Section Chief Tim Neely for reasons 1.4 b/d ¶1. (C) SUMMARY. Canada convened a meeting April 11 of representatives from UK, Canada, EU, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and U.S. offices in Taipei to discuss next steps following Taiwan's abortive membership bid for the World Health Organization (WHO). All agreed that that Taiwan's membership drive was not helpful and may actually undercut efforts underway to enhance Taiwan's "meaningful participation" in WHO activities. Although there was some disagreement over support for Taiwan's observership bid at the World Health Assembly (WHA),all present agreed that their governments were committed to continuing to work for Taiwan's meaningful participation in WHO activities. To this end, this ad hoc group agreed to continue information sharing and coordination in support of Taiwan's participation in WHO activities, but in a low-key fashion so as not to disturb PRC sensitivities. END SUMMARY NO TO MEMBERSHIP; YES TO MEANINGFUL PARTICIPATION -------------- -------------- ¶2. (C) At the invitation of the Canadian Commercial Office director, reps from the EU, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the AIT met on 4/19 to discuss ramifications of Taiwan's April 11 membership application for WHO membership. Following are views of each country representative present: --Canada: The Prime Minister is interested in the issue of Taiwan participation in WHO and is looking at other options since Canada does not believe the 2005 WHO-PRC MOU adequately addresses Taiwan's needs for increased meaningful participation. -- EU: Brussels was upset and surprised that Taiwan applied for WHO membership, lamenting that Taiwan had not acknowledged EU efforts on its behalf. The EU rep, however, stated there is no change in the EU position, and that the EU continues to oppose WHA observership for Taiwan but supports increasing Taiwan's meaningful participation (including International Health Regulations/IHR and the Global Outbreak Alert Response Network/GOARN) and has so demarched WHO twice this year, most recently in a March meeting of EU ambassadors with WHO Director-General Margaret Chan. -- UK: UK finds it difficult to assess the actual status of Taiwan's participation in WHO activities, but supports Taiwan's meaningful participation. -- New Zealand: Opposes WHO observership, but supports meaningful participation. NZ is not happy with Taiwan's membership bid and asked what course of action the U.S. plans. -- Japan: Taiwan's WHO membership bid came as a surprise to Japan. On April 9 FM Huang called in Japan Representative Ikeda and informed him of Taiwan's intention to apply for WHO membership (Note: Huang called in AIT Deputy Director on April 6; see ref C). Four days later Japan responded to FM Huang with four points: (1) Japan is making every effort to increase Taiwan participation. (2) Japan is concerned that Taiwan's membership application will undermine efforts for improving meaningful participation. (3) Taiwan should reconsider its decision to apply for membership. (4) Japan does not support membership in WHO for Taiwan, but it does support observership and meaningful participation in IHR and GOARN. --AIT: AIT works with both MOFA and Taiwan Center for Disease Control (TCDC) on the issue of enhancing Taiwan's meaningful Participation in WHO activities. The U.S. supports observership and meaningful participation, but not membership, for Taiwan. Our representative in Geneva has discussed these issues with WHO and Taipei's representative in Geneva. (Note: At the Japan rep's request, AIT did not mention the planned April 24 U.S.-Japan meeting with WHO Director-General Chan. End Note.) The U.S. also has found it difficult ascertaining the precise level of Taiwan's participation in WHO technical meetings. AIT intends to work closely with TCDC to clarify this issue. AIT and other reps agreed that posting a schedule of meetings on the WHO website would be helpful. Future Coordination -------------- ¶4. (C) The meeting concluded with participants agreeing to coordinate locally in Taipei in support of enhancing Taiwan's meaningful participation in WHO activities. All agreed that more transparency on the process of choosing which WHO meetings Taiwan could attend was needed. The participants agreed to continue information sharing and coordination, but in low-key fashion so as not to arouse PRC suspicions that participating countries were trying to "gang-up" on China. Future meetings and information exchange will be scheduled. YOUNG