Australian Senate passes resolution backing Taiwan's participation in UN organizations, agencies

ANKARA

Australia’s Senate has passed a resolution backing Taiwan's participation in UN organizations and agencies, local media said on Thursday.

The resolution, proposed by senators David Fawcett and Deborah O'Neill on Wednesday, said UN Resolution 2758 "does not establish China's sovereignty over Taiwan and does not determine the future status of Taiwan in the UN," local ABC News reported.

The Australian move could anger China, as bilateral relations between Beijing and Canberra have been tense for over three years due to Australia's demand for an investigation into the origins of COVID-19.

However, relations between the two countries apparently saw improvement after President Xi Jinping and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s high-level meeting in Indonesia in November 2022, followed by a meeting of their foreign ministers in Beijing.

Taiwan's representative office in Australia praised the Senate move.

"We applaud the efforts of our fellow free democracies," it said in statement.

China considers Taiwan its own, but Taipei has maintained its independence since 1949.

*Writing by Islamuddin Sajid