WHO: TAIWAN ISSUES AT THE 60TH WORLD HEALTH

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 GENEVA 001163 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT FOR EAP AND IO/T E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PHUM SUBJECT: WHO: TAIWAN ISSUES AT THE 60TH WORLD HEALTH ASSEMBLY REF: A. SECSTATE 52367 ¶B. SECSTATE 26497 ¶1. Summary. Ambassador Tichenor and Japanese Ambassador Fujisaki met April 24 with Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO),as requested reftels, to urge Chan to improve the participation of Taiwan's experts in the technical work of the WHO. Chan promised to find ways to accomplish this, at a minimum by appointing a contact in her office for Taiwan issues and by better informing Taiwan of upcoming meetings in which they would be interested. Ambassador Tichenor also met with the Japanese and German ambassadors to discuss ways to support Taiwan's meaningful participation in WHO while avoiding political confrontations on Taiwan status issues at the World Health Assembly. Ambassador Tichenor subsequently met with the Chinese ambassador to continue these discussion. The German ambassador is working with China, Taiwan officials, and the WHO to find a solution to the political stand-off resulting from Taiwan's decision to seek membership in the WHO this year. Mission is not optimistic that the German Ambassador will succeed. End summary. ¶2. Ambassador Tichenor and Japanese Permanent Representative Ichiro Fujisaki, accompanied by Health Attaches of the two Missions, met April 24 with WHO Director-General (DG) Margaret Chan. Chan was accompanied by Dr. Bill Kean, Executive Director of the DG's office, and Gian Luca Burci, WHO Legal Counsel. Drawing on points in reftels, Ambassador Tichenor stressed to Chan that while the United States does not support membership for Taiwan in the WHO, it does support observer status for Taiwan at the World Health Assembly and meaningful participation by Taiwan in the organization's technical activities. Ambassador Fujisaki said Japan's position was exactly the same. Stressing there can be no gaps in the universal application of the International Health Regulations (IHRs),both ambassadors emphasized the need to expand Taiwan's meaningful participation, and asked the DG to appoint a contact in her office to handle Taiwan issues as one way to improve the situation. ¶3. Chan agreed that implementation of the China-WHO Memorandum of Understanding on Taiwan's participation in the WHO, signed in 2005, could be improved, noting that both Kean and Burci served as contact points for Taiwan. Chan conceded the WHO did not adequately inform Taiwan about upcoming meetings in which it might be interested and that late responses to Taiwan's requests for participation caused problems. Noting that Taiwan cannot be in a more favorable position than Member States with respect to notifications of upcoming meetings, Chan speculated that perhaps the WHO could place such information on its website, available to all. ¶4. Burci identified two problem areas: that Taiwan had sometimes requested participation in intergovernmental meetings, which was not appropriate, and that some categories of meetings, such as regional meetings, were only open to certain Member States. Both ambassadors urged Chan to work proactively to improve implementation of the MOU, which Chan committed to do. ¶5. Turning to the membership issue, Chan mentioned a Chinese proposal to permit Taiwan's participation in the IHRs, expressing the hope that Taiwan's membership application would not derail China's offer. She noted the German ambassador's efforts, on behalf of the EU, to help find a solution between the political and public health aspects of the issue and said the EU might end its support for meaningful participation if Taiwan continues to push its political agenda. (Comment: FRG Deputy PermRep told Mission Health Attache the EU wants to separate meaningful participation from Taiwan's political efforts, but did not link the two in the way Chan suggested, while acknowledging there would be a pause in EU support for meaningful participation if Taiwan pursued its political agenda this year. End comment.) ¶6. Ambassador Tichenor hosted a meeting on May 1 with Japanese Ambassador Fujisaki and German Ambassador Steiner to discuss further steps to support Taiwan's participation in the work of the WHO. The German Deputy PermRep and the Japanese and U.S. health attaches also attended. After a GENEVA 00001163 002 OF 003 wide-ranging discussion of the current situation ) both political/status issues at the World Health Assembly (WHA) and meaningful participation issues - the Ambassador Steiner outlined a proposal he wished to pursue. ¶7. In essence, Ambassador Steiner's idea, based on the Chinese proposal on Taiwan's participation in the International Health Regulations (IHRs),was to have WHO draft a new arrangement that would strip out nomenclature references and anything dealing with Chinese prior permission/consent, and have WHO send it to Taiwan's Center for Disease Control as WHO,s proposal for Taiwan's inclusion in the IHRs - a generally more positive approach, addressing Taiwan's meaningful participation in WHO technical activities. Ambassador Steiner recognized, of course, that this could only be done with Chinese agreement. The group agreed that Steiner should propose this to the Chinese PermRep, Ambassador SHA Zukang, during an already scheduled meeting the same day. ¶8. Ambassador Steiner later called Ambassador Tichenor to report that Ambassador Sha had reacted favorably to the idea. Mission Health Attache subsequently discussed this with the German Deputy PermRep, who said Ambassador Sha had agreed that WHO should draft a letter to the Taiwan CDC outlining how Taiwan could participate in the IHRs, and that this letter could omit nomenclature issues and any &permission8 elements. Sha asked that the letter include a &chapeau8 that stated everything would be done in accordance with WHO Resolutions (clearly a reference to the &One China8 resolution). Sha understands that WHO,s letter would be made public. China's agreement to this scenario was contingent on Taiwan agreeing not to pursue either observer status or membership at the WHA this year. ¶9. The next day, May 2, the German Mission informed us Sha had backed away from his agreement of the previous day, and would now agree only to Germany discussing the IHR arrangement with Taiwan, saying there could be no contact between WHO and Taiwan officials. Steiner agreed to undertake those discussions. ¶10. On May 3 Ambassador Tichenor and Health Attache met with Ambassador Sha and two of his colleagues, at Sha's request, to discuss the Taiwan issue. Sha stressed that China wants the U.S. to push Taiwan to accept the deal being promoted by Ambassador Steiner. Ambassador Tichenor responded by saying we were in favor of proposals that would improve Taiwan's meaningful participation in WHO,s work but had some concerns about what China really had in mind, referring particularly to any private arrangement China would have with WHO that placed limitations (i.e. China's consent) on Taiwan. Sha attempted to dismiss this, but acknowledged that China could not permit WHO to deal with Taiwan in a way that jeopardized China's sovereignty. Sha said China was prepared to make a public statement ) perhaps in the Chinese Health Minister's statement to the Health Assembly ) that China would take the necessary steps so that &the people in Taiwan8 were fully covered by the Health Regulations through direct contact between WHO and Taiwan CDC on these matters, so long as these activities respected the One China principle and were not used for political objectives. Sha also said China would not object if the WHO Director-General publicly acknowledged China's statement as something that would promote the universal application of the Health Regulations and prevent any gaps in their implementation. ¶11. Mission Health Attache met with Taiwan representative Lyushun Shen on May 4 to discuss the idea of a Chinese statement in the WHA Plenary followed by a statement by the WHO DG. Shen rejected this out of hand, saying Taiwan would not accept any public statement suggesting its participation in the work of WHO was contingent on Chinese consent, a not unexpected reaction. Instead, Shen proposed the WHO DG make a statement on her own initiative, linked to a Health Assembly agenda item on applications for membership. In Mission's view, this is a non-starter. ¶12. The WHO Legal Counsel has told Mission that Belize has requested a supplemental item on the WHA agenda related to Taiwan's membership in WHO and attached to that request a copy of Taiwan's formal application for membership. GENEVA 00001163 003 OF 003 Ambassador Steiner is continuing to discuss with China, Taiwan and WHO a possible solution, including a letter from WHO to Taiwan CDC outlining elements for Taiwan's participation in implementation of the International Health Regulations, which would be transmitted after the World Health Assembly, and a general statement in the DG's speech to the WHA Plenary about universal application of the IHRs, possibly referring to the participation of the people in Taiwan in the IHRs. Mission understands Steiner is not optimistic that his efforts will succeed. TICHENOR