BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE Republic of China (Taiwan) is lobbying to be named as an observer in the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), rather than a “guest” as it was during the last assembly in 2013.
In late September to early October 2013, Taiwan’s civil aviation authorities were welcomed to participate in the ICAO’s 38th Assembly as “guests” and according to a US Department of State communique published during that time, “Taiwan’s active participation in this year’s Assembly will promote global aviation safety and security, and will strengthen ICAO as an institution.”
Taiwan however is of the view that its contributions would be more meaningful as an “observer” of the ICAO rather than a “guest”.
According to the Taiwanese Embassy in St. Kitts and Nevis, “As an indispensable part of global aviation responsible for managing the heavily traveled Taipei Flight Information Region (Taipei FIR), Taiwan aspires to meaningful participation in the ICAO by becoming an observer to the body’s meetings, mechanisms and activities, so as to better contribute to the safeguarding of regional and global aviation safety.”
Taipei FIR, the Embassy disclosed, “covers 180,000 square nautical miles and is adjacent to 4 FIRs: Fukuoka, Manila, Hong Kong and Shanghai. It is located off mainland China’s eastern seaboard between Japan and the Philippines.” And in 2012 alone, services provided by Taipei FIR reached 40 million travelers, through 1.3 million controlled flights.
“Taiwan has roughly 150 scheduled flights to and from Europe, 400 the US, 660 Japan and over 1200 across the Taiwan Strait. The Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport was ranked 16th globally in international passenger traffic by the Airports Council International (ACI) in 2012, stating Taiwan is connected to 117 cities around the globe by 58 domestic and foreign airlines via 181 air passenger routes and 86 air freight routes.”
The Embassy expresses Taiwan’s hope that its attendance of the ICAO’s 38th Assembly last year would act as a catalyst to Taiwan regaining its seat in the aviation body.
“With that meaningful attendance, Taiwan has gained better knowledge of the development of international aviation standards, obtain first-hand information crucial to aviation safety, and be able to exchange views on the international civil aviation matter with other countries and members of international civil aviation community. Hence that attending has been regarded as part of the concrete steps forward for Taiwan in its ICAO campaign since 2009.”
Indicating that its “exclusion from the ICAO’s platform…is indeed a hurdle to ICAO’s pursuit of a seamless sky”, Taiwan is of the view that it “can…contribute to regional and global aviation safety by sharing its advance aviation technologies. International support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the aviation body has been widely acknowledged by stakeholders around the world.”
