In a recent radio interview the Prime Minister said, “We have been urging the WHO to begin to bring new partners on board as much as possible, especially partners and countries which are friendly to us that have been left out of the loop so far.”

“I speak specifically of urging the WHO to extend what has been described as the WHA model – the World Health Assembly model – that would allow countries like Taiwan to attend other WHO meetings, mechanisms and activities in order to help boost the global health system ability to prevent and control Non-Communicable Diseases and all other kinds of diseases,” said Mr. Douglas

The Prime Minister also cautioned that there is a need to some extent to “forget some of the political wrangling and bring all countries on board, all stakeholders, all entities onboard who will want to work with the WHO to impact in a positive way the message and the action plan that we would pursue from here onwards.”

Taiwan is not part of the United Nations and is excluded from participating in the just completed UN High-Level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases.