As prime minister Albanese got over the jetlag from his recent whirlwind trips to Jakarta, the Vatican and Singapore, I’d hope someone found the time in his diary to tell him about an opportunity Australia had to play a key role in reinforcing multilateral approaches to problem solving and while asserting a distinctively Australian foreign policy agenda, even as our US ally takes a different path.

The opportunity I’m talking about was supporting the work of the World Health Organisation and setting its directions for future years. That could have been happening over the last week, and could still be happening even now as the WHO’s governing body, the World Health Assembly, wraps up its annual meeting in Geneva.

Getting very specific, this involves using Australian voices and diplomacy to bring Taiwan in as a WHO member to bolster WHO efforts on future pandemic prevention and preparedness. That’s because of Taiwan’s capacity in public health and track record in international health cooperation and because of the need to reinforce the WHO just as a key member – the United States – leaves it.

In a world where international cooperation is fraying and multilateral organisations like the UN, NATO, the World Trade Organisation and the WHO are challenged and weakened, countries and leaders who stand up for cooperation and reinforce key organisations are getting rarer and more valuable.  So, it’s a very positive thing that Mr Albanese leads a newly empowered Labor government that has a deep commitment to multilateralism and international cooperation, and understands that health is an area where this matters. 

As Mr Albanese has said, COVID-19 “underscored that for Australia, effective multilateralism should be our default practice and posture.
 
It is dangerous for Australia to be part of efforts to tear down useful multilateral institutions.
 
Because there are a lot of problems we can only solve through cooperation.
 
In other words, far from being a feel-good exercise, Australian leadership in the multilateral system is an extension of our national power. There is so much for us to gain by engaging more creatively and enthusiastically.”

The thumping parliamentary majority Labor gives Mr Albanese the room to be a bit more pushy and ambitious in foreign policy, and craft Australian directions that deal with the difficult cross currents in relationships like those with Beijing, and unfortunately, Washington.

The World Health Assembly meeting happening now in Geneva is probably an example of both.  We’d all rather forget the COVID-19 pandemic and maybe this amnesia is helped by the fact that international cooperation helped us cope with that pandemic reasonably quickly and well.

But getting over some of that amnesia lets us remember some key things from that anxious and dangerous time: the pandemic spilt out of China fast and propagated rapidly across the world, but information was slow to come from Chinese authorities and when it did it was partial.  So, early knowledge of the developing pandemic was hard to get and treatment and public health measures had to be worked out in the midst of a growing crisis and deep public anxiety.

In both these areas, the world got key insights from Taiwan.  Taiwanese scientists and medical staff were able to get hold of, translate and share data and reports about what was going on in China. And the Taiwanese health system, along with Singapore’s, shared expertise and insights from their very successful efforts to manage the earlier SARS pandemic (like COVID-19, SARS is also a coronavirus).  The WHO gratefully received and distributed this information.

So, whatever its shortcomings, the World Health Organisation was central to global efforts to cope with, and eventually end, the devastating pandemic and let us all live normal lives.  Taiwan’s work as a hugely positive international health partner then was acknowledged. But ironically that acknowledgement did not end Taiwan’s exclusion from the WHO. 

In fact, a byproduct of Taiwan’s success in sharing early insights about what was happening in China was an expansion in the Chinese government’s efforts to isolate Taiwan and prevent it from participating in multilateral and international organisations, including the WHO. The WHO is weaker as a result.

Now, with unexpected symmetry, the Trump Administration in Washington has also taken this moment to weaken international health cooperation by withdrawing from the WHO.

This combination of pressure on the WHO from Beijing and Washington means that countries who understand the contribution Taiwan can make to global health have two very good reasons to speak up and act on that understanding.

The good news is that Australian voices have supported Taiwanese participation in the WHO in the lead up to the World Health Assembly meeting. The bad news is that this was in the form of our representative office in Taipei joining with 7 other countries’ offices there, with nothing from our minister for foreign affairs, our health minister or Mr Albanese. And the worse news is that procedural issues stopped Taiwan’s participation being formally debated outside of a tiny group at the start of the gathering.

A simple but clear statement of support for Taiwan as a key contributor to global health from Mr Albanese or foreign minister Wong any time over this last week – even now as the event wraps up — would be a demonstration that Australia’s commitment to international cooperation was real. It would give Australian officials working with the WHO and the Assembly all the authority they need to advance this agenda, and demonstrate an ability for Australia to act on our own assessment of issues and interests, without having either Beijing or Washington dictate our position. 

And, more importantly, it would be the right thing to do because of the contribution Taiwanese authorities and experts can make to preventing future pandemics.

As someone who only wants to work from home by choice and not because of future nationwide lockdowns, I’ll be first in the queue to congratulate Mr Albanese should we find out he did empower Australian officials to push for these outcomes in Geneva this week.

The Australian Government seems to have missed the moment this year. Fortunately, there’s plenty of work and caucusing to do with other WHO members to prepare for a better result at next year’s gathering.