I wish to join
others in congratulating you, Madam, on your election
as President of the General Assembly at its sixty-first
session. Please be assured of my country’s support and
cooperation throughout your tenure.
The Marshall Islands commends all members of
the General Assembly for their efforts, contributions
and cooperation throughout the sixtieth session aimed
at achieving many of our common aspirations.
Although we have achieved a good measure of success,
there is still much work ahead. We must work together
and pool our resources, our talents and our skills for
the betterment of all the citizens of the world. It is in
this regard that I urge the wealthier and more
developed Member States to increase their generosity
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with official development assistance so as to address
issues of human misery.
As one of the smallest States Members of the
United Nations, the Marshall Islands hopes that the
sixty-first session of the General Assembly will do
more to protect and secure our people from threats to
their livelihood and existence.
The Marshall Islands is committed to various
international and regional plans and agreements,
including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),
the Mauritius Strategy for the further Implementation
of the Programme of Action for the Sustainable
Development of Small Island Developing States, the
Pacific Plan and, more recently, the Micronesian
Challenge initiative, which sets ambitious targets for
marine and terrestrial conservation areas throughout
the Micronesian region.
We emphasize the need for the full and effective
implementation of the commitments, programmes and
targets adopted, particularly those of the International
Meeting to Review the Implementation of the
Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development
of Small Island Developing States, and for the
mobilization of the necessary resources from all
sources for the effective implementation of the
Mauritius Strategy.
Given that the livelihood of our people depends
heavily on the oceans, we again join our Pacific
neighbours in requesting that our ocean resources be
managed and protected from exploitation. Because our
nation’s single most important productive sector is
fisheries, which provide us with our key export, the
state of the world’s oceans and fish stocks and the way
in which those vital resources are being exploited
remain concerns of the utmost importance.
As a party to the 1982 United Nations
Convention on the Law of the Sea and the 1995 United
Nations Fish Stocks Agreement, we recognize the
importance of the entry into force of the Convention on
the Conservation and Management of Highly
Migratory Fish Stocks in the Western and Central
Pacific Ocean and the subsequent conservation and
management measures adopted thus far by the recently
established Western and Central Pacific Fisheries
Commission.
While we acknowledge the implications and
adverse impact of illegal, unreported and unregulated
fishing in the region, including the consequences of
over-fishing for national and regional resources, we are
continuing to develop and explore ways and means of
conducting and enforcing conservation and
management measures, as well as of developing our
domestic fisheries. We seek a moratorium on bottom
trawling until there are clear indications that it has no
effects on ocean biodiversity.
It is our hope that regional efforts — such as
those being undertaken by the small islands developing
States — to spread the knowledge of conservation and
the sustainable use of biodiversity will be strengthened
and enhanced by international assistance.
At the national level, I wish to share with
Member States the progress that we have made in
terms of Government leadership and national
development. Our national and local government
leaders met early last month to review our progress in
achieving our long term National Development Plan.
This provided a chance for both the national
Government and local governments to renew their
commitments to work together to bring about a better
Marshall Islands. It also paved the way for
Government officials to discuss issues of critical
concern that continue to obstruct our development
opportunities in the areas of education, health and the
environment, among others.
Another important issue also being discussed on
the home front is that of the nuclear-weapons tests that
were conducted in the Marshall Islands. Our people
have made a disproportionate sacrifices in helping the
world understand the power of the nuclear bomb. We
have paid with our own lives, our health and the well-
being of our land and waters, which are so sacred to us.
Since the Marshall Islands became independent, in
1986, we have undertaken efforts to better understand
the impact of the activities that took place on our
islands during the cold war. We are finding that the
effects of the 67 atmospheric weapon tests conducted
in our country were much worse and much more
widespread than previously understood, although we
still have a great deal more to learn.
As a small country with limited resources, we are
of course focusing our efforts on addressing the
nuclear legacy. We call on the United Nations and its
agencies and on Member States that share similar
experiences and have expertise in the restoration of
environments contaminated with radiation and in
19 06-53952
addressing health needs linked to radiation exposure to
assist and support the Marshall Islands Changed
Circumstances Petition, which was submitted to the
United States Congress in 2000. As knowledgeable and
responsible leaders of the world community, the United
Nations has the capacity to positively influence the
well-being of the citizens of the Marshall Islands, who
were under the care of the Trusteeship Council when
the United States nuclear testing programme was in
progress — from 1946 to 1958 following the Second
World War.
Marshall Islands reiterates its firm commitment
to the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear
Weapons (NPT) and its objectives of preventing the
spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology,
fostering the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and
furthering the goal of achieving general and complete
disarmament. We urge those countries that have not
already done so to become a party to the NPT, and
those countries that are party to the NPT to fully
cooperate with the International Atomic Energy
Agency and fulfil their obligations under the Treaty.
Marshall Islands and French Polynesia know all
too well that colonial Powers are willing to use
territories other than their own to conduct dangerous
nuclear weapons testing. In that regard, we call on the
United Nations to continue to press for the
decolonization of all nations in the Pacific region.
We also call on the United Nations to admit the
23 million citizens of Taiwan to the United Nations
family. Taiwan, which shares the Organization’s view
on the principles of universality and self-
determination, has been enjoying a democratic
Government of its own for over half a century. The fact
that Taiwan has been denied membership into the
United Nations again and again questions the
legitimacy of the Organization. On behalf of my
country, I therefore urge this body to welcome Taiwan
into its membership.
Marshall Islands wishes to reiterate its support
for the reform, restructuring and expansion of the
Security Council. In particular, we emphasize the
inclusion of Japan as a permanent member of the
Council, and fully endorse Japan’s proposal on the
methodology to be used in the preparation of the
United Nations scale of assessments for the period
2007 to 2009. We are convinced that the entire
membership of the United Nations would benefit
greatly from Japan’s permanent membership and its
proposed scale of assessments structure.
In the regional arena, last year Marshall Islands
joined two of its neighbours in requesting that the
United Nations step up its presence in the northern
Pacific to pursue various development agendas, not
only in our country but also in the Pacific region as a
whole. I am pleased to inform the Assembly today that
three United Nations agencies — the United Nations
Development Programme, the United Nations
Population Fund and UNICEF — have agreed to
establish offices in various countries in the region,
including the Marshall Islands.
Moreover, our Government has been working
extensively with others in the region to implement the
Pacific Plan, endorsed at the Pacific Islands Forum
leaders’ meeting held in Papua New Guinea in October
2005. I wish to join my colleagues in thanking our
development partners for their assistance in making the
Plan viable. Marshall Islands remains confident that
the Pacific Plan will provide a useful framework for
continued regional and international cooperation.
Internationally, the Marshall Islands joins other
Pacific countries in reiterating our interests and asking
the international community to recognize the
vulnerability of small island developing States. They
need the continued support of developed countries to
build up their capacity to manage vulnerability,
strengthen food security and build resilience to
economic, social and environmental change. We appeal
to the international community to support and enhance
existing and new capacity-building efforts of, and
among, small island developing States. We need the
assistance of the international community to establish
mechanisms to enable small island developing States to
cope with, and adjust to, globalization and trade
liberalization.
Marshall Islands consists predominantly of low-
lying atolls that are an average of two metres above sea
level. Our small atolls and islands are dwarfed by our
surrounding exclusive economic zone, which consists
of approximately 2 million square kilometres of ocean.
While we rely on our ocean as a means of sustenance
and survival, the sea becomes our biggest concern
during increasingly severe weather conditions. We are
fearful of sea-level rise, which is threatening the very
existence of our islands.
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We therefore wish to reaffirm our grave concern
regarding the vulnerability of small island developing
States to the impacts of climate change, as well as the
need for urgent action at the international level by the
major emitters of carbon dioxide among developed and
developing industrial countries to halt and reverse
those devastating climate change impacts.
I wish to take this opportunity to thank President
Jan Eliasson for his excellent management of the
General Assembly presidency over the past year. I also
wish to congratulate him on his appointment as his
country’s Minister for Foreign Affairs. The General
Assembly accomplished a great deal under his able
leadership and I would like to commend him on his
achievements. I wish him well in his new post.
The people of the Republic of the Marshall
Islands join me in wishing Secretary-General
Kofi Annan and Mrs. Nane Annan well in their future
endeavours. I wish to convey our sincere appreciation
for their gesture of friendship and goodwill during his
tenure as Secretary-General of the United Nations.
In closing, I would like to assure the Assembly
that my country will continue to work with the United
Nations to meet our common challenges. Sixty-one
years on, General Assembly members must move
deliberately and decisively to overcome the dangers
that lie ahead. We must meet our responsibilities to our
respective countries and to each other as members of
the General Assembly to ensure that we arrive at a
better future.