Taiwan’s bid to join the UN to cite COVID-19 effortsBy Lin Chia-nan / Staff reporterThe nation’s campaign to rejoin the UN this year would highlight its achievements in containing COVID-19 and its commitment to multilateralism, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. Ministry of Foreign Affairs Chief Secretary Lily Hsu, center, speaks alongside the ministry’s Department of International Organizations Director-General Bob Chen, left, and ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou at a news conference in Taipei yesterday. As usual, the ministry would ask the nation’s diplomatic allies to speak up for Taiwan during the debate and write to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, she said. The ministry would also hold General Assembly-related events at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in New York City, said Hsu, who was director-general of the TECO in New York before assumed her current post, adding that most of the events would be held virtually due to COVID-19-related crowd size restrictions. On Sept. 23 last year, Hsu was invited by the US to attend a speech by US President Donald Trump at the UN headquarters, which was regarded as a diplomatic breakthrough in Taiwan.

Source: Taipei Times August 28, 2020 15:56 UTC