TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taiwan deserves to be a full member of the United Nations and World Health Organization (WHO), former United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Wednesday (Aug. 21).

She was a keynote speaker at the eighth edition of the Ketagalan Forum in Taipei City. Earlier in the day, President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) and former Japanese Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko also addressed the security forum.

Haley mentioned the COVID-19 pandemic as a reason to allow Taiwan wider international recognition, CNA reported. China was still evading its responsibilities, but Taiwan was actively preventing the spread of the pandemic right from the start, showing it deserved more than many other countries to be invited to the table, she said.

The retired diplomat described Taiwan as “a place of courage, confidence, and unwavering resolve,” while calling on the US and other free nations to “stand strong with Taiwan.” The UN should stop ignoring Taiwan, but allow it full membership of the global community.

Haley said that when she started work at the UN, she found out that Taiwanese were not even allowed into its headquarters in New York, because China had persuaded people that Taiwan’s almost 24 million people did not exist.

If anyone mentioned Taiwan at the UN, China would go crazy, she said. Yet, despite the pressure, more countries were moving closer to Taiwan, she said, mentioning Lithuania setting up a representative office, and Estonia considering doing so.

Haley also emphasized the need for strong defense assistance by the US and its allies for Taiwan, and expressed her support for a US-Taiwan free trade agreement as parts of a “diplomatic blitz” to raise Taipei’s international profile, per Radio Taiwan International. If the free countries in the region stood together, they could dissuade China from trying to attack Taiwan, she said.