Taiwan belongs at ICAO gathering

Beginning on Sept. 27, Montreal will be host to an important meeting of the International Civil Aviation Organization. Although ICAO has the slogan “No country left behind,” one country has failed to be invited to this year’s meeting — Taiwan.

This is a notable gap, considering that Taiwan’s Taoyuan International Airport was ranked 11th in the world in passenger volumes and sixth in cargo last year. Clearly, Taiwan’s aviation authorities need to be involved in ICAO so that they can fully participate in the development of standards, data-sharing and security audits.

Professors Ram S. Jakhu and Kuan-Wei Chen of the McGill Centre for Research in Air and Space Law have recently issued a study identifying Taiwan’s absence as a gap in global aviation safety and security. In 2013, Taiwan attended the last ICAO meeting under the name Chinese Taipei. This time, however, no invitation seems forthcoming amid increasingly strained Taiwan-China relations.

Canada, the host of the meeting, has the clout to push for Taiwan to be present under the same conditions as before. It would be a strong example of leadership to do just that, putting pragmatic considerations above power politics. Scott Simon, Chelsea