The United States condemns the decision of the World Health Organization (WHO) to postpone granting observer status to Taiwan at the World Health Assembly, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday.
“The United States condemns the expulsion of Taiwan from the World Health Assembly”, – according to a statement issued by the State Department.
WHO member countries decided at the beginning of the virtual assembly, which began on Monday, to postpone discussion on granting observer status to Taiwan, as the United States had previously insisted.
“No one argues that Taiwan has made some of the most successful efforts to contain the pandemic so far, despite its close proximity to the outbreak site of Wuhan in China”, – Pompeo said.
In his opinion, Tedros Gebrejesus, the organization’s Director General, had all the legal authority and precedent to include Taiwan in the Assembly.
“But instead, he chose not to invite Taiwan under pressure from the People’s Republic of China. The lack of independence of the Director-General deprived the Assembly of Taiwan’s recognized scientific expertise in pandemic diseases and further undermined the reliability and effectiveness of WHO at a time when the world needs it most,” the secretary of state added.
U.S. President Trump’s April report announced the suspension of WHO funding. The Trump administration accused the organization of not responding quickly enough to the outbreak of coronavirus and the pro-Chinese position. At the same time, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo did not rule out that Washington will never restore the suspended funding to the WHO. Late last week Trump said that Washington is considering various options to change the funding for WHO, including reducing its contributions to 10%.