Supporting Observer Status For Taiwan in International Civil Aviation Organization

Floor Speech

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Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, as one of the cochairs of the bipartisan Congressional Taiwan Caucus, I rise in strong support of House Concurrent Resolution 266, and I particularly want to commend one of my fellow cochairs, Ms. Shelley Berkley of Nevada, for her leadership on this issue. Additionally, Mr. Speaker, I would like to applaud the leadership of other cochairs, Mr. Lincoln Diaz-Balart of Florida and Mr. Gerry Connolly of Virginia, for their work in bringing this resolution to the floor, and I thank the gentlewoman from Florida for yielding me time.

Since its inception in 1947, the International Civil Aviation Organization, ICAO, has been a great resource for the international community to develop and to foster the most efficient and the safest means of airline travel across the world. In the aftermath of the horrific terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, it was the ICAO that convened a conference to endorse a uniform, international strategy to ensure aviation safety throughout the entire world.

Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, our friends in Taiwan have been excluded from participation in the ICAO since 1971. Not only has that diminished Taiwan's ability to stay at the cutting edge of aviation, it has also presented obstacles to the international community as a whole, because ICAO cannot completely fulfill its mission to meet the needs of all people in efficient and safe air travel.

Taiwan has a very large footprint within commercial aviation that warrants its inclusion within ICAO. The Taipei Flight Information Region, as has been mentioned by my colleagues, covers an airspace of 176,000 square nautical miles. It provides air traffic control services to over 1.3 million flights annually. Additionally, there are over 174,000 international flights carrying more than 35 million passengers that fly in and out of Taiwan each and every year.

With this high volume of air traffic, Taiwan certainly deserves to have a seat at the table of ICAO at least, Mr. Speaker, as an observer.

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Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. This is precisely what this concurrent resolution seeks to accomplish. Providing Taiwan with meaningful participation at ICAO benefits both the Taiwanese and the international community as a whole.

Due to our longstanding relationship and our respect for our friends in Taiwan, I want to urge all of my colleagues to support House Concurrent Resolution 266.

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