Taiwan is hopeful of attending this year’s meeting of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). That’s the word from Michael Hsu, director of the Department of International Organizations under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on Tuesday.
The ICAO is a specialized agency of the United Nations and convenes once every three years. This year’s meeting will get underway in Canada on September 27th.
Taiwan attended the last ICAO meeting as an observer and Hsu said the foreign ministry is working on being able to attend this year. But that prospect may be affected by the chill in cross-strait relations since the Tsai Ing-wen administration took over in May.
Taiwan’s attendance at such international events, especially those related to the United Nations, is largely dependent on the attitude of China. In the case of this year’s World Health Assembly, Taiwan was invited to attend but with the condition attached that this would be under the “one China” principle. The Taiwanese delegation attended the WHA but made it clear that it did not accept that condition. As to whether this might affect Taiwan’s chances of attending the ICAO meeting, Hsu said the government was doing everything it can.
Hsu said, "We have done our preparations, we of course hope that there will not be a repeat of what happened with the WHA invitation. But we have no way to know how the situation may develop. I can only report to you all that we will do everything we can and we hope we will be able to get the invitation to attend again this year."
One key factor that may determine whether Taiwan is able to attend this year’s meeting is that the new head of the ICAO, Liu Fang, is Chinese. Liu took up the post of ICAO secretary general in August last year.