India in a spot over Taiwan’s participation

India is facing a tight rope-walk on the issue of whether it should support Taiwan’s participation as an observer at the forthcoming World Health Assembly (WHA), the decision-making body of the UN’s World Health Organisation (WHO) next week . The 73rd session of the WHA is scheduled to take place on May 18 and 19 at Geneva, Switzerland, and the raging Coronavirus pandemic is expected to be the main topic of discussion. India will also reportedly take over as the Chair of the Executive Board of the WHO after that meeting. The Executive Board prepares the agenda for the meetings.

Sources on Friday evening indicated that India had not yet taken a decision on whether it should back Taiwanese participation at the WHA. According to reports, several Western nations including the United States are keen that Taiwan should be allowed to participate. Sources had earlier indicated that the agenda and procedures for the WHA meeting next week are still evolving and that India would take a view on all issues depending on how the formal agenda evolves.

India, like most nations in the world, follows the “One-China Policy” and does not recognise Taiwan—an island territory off the coast of the Chinese mainland—-as a sovereign nation. China has always considered Taiwan as a part of its territory and as a renegade province although Beijing has never exercised physical jurisdiction over Taiwan since 1949. China has been opposing Taiwan’s participation at the WHA as a separate entity on the grounds of this “OneChina Policy”. But Taiwan has been requesting India to support its case for participation.

Interestingly, Taiwan had earlier been invited to attend the WHA sessions from 2009 to 2016 as an observer. This was the time when Beijing’s relations with Taiwanese authorities—-referred to popularly as cross-straits ties—-was improving but since about 2017 these ties have soured considerably. From 2017 onwards, Taiwan’s participation at the WHA had ceased.