I would like to express my
sincere congratulations to Mr. Srgjan Kerim on his
election as President of the General Assembly at its
sixty-second session. My delegation also wishes to
commend his predecessor, Sheikha Haya Rashed
Al-Khalifa, for her leadership of the General Assembly
at its sixty-first session, particularly in addressing the
difficult issues that continue to prevent revitalization of
the General Assembly and reform of the Security
Council. My delegation offers its full cooperation and
support towards the President’s commitment to
continuing with the Organization’s overall reform
agenda and addressing the many challenges ahead.
As this is the first General Assembly session to
be convened since the appointment of His Excellency
Mr. Ban Ki-moon as Secretary-General, my delegation
takes this opportunity to assure him of Nauru’s firm
support and full cooperation in his leadership of the
United Nations.
I am deeply honoured to be addressing this body
for the third consecutive year, this time as the recently
returned leader of our small island State of Nauru. As
members are no doubt aware, when I first took up
office, three years ago, my country was on the brink of
collapse. While Nauru was once a small donor country
with a high income, our wealth was squandered in a
single generation through gross mismanagement and
corruption on the part of previous Governments. Our
past record of poor governance and the need to rebuild
Nauru were the main reasons that our national
sustainable development strategy was initiated by our
Government and given one of its fundamental goals:
the establishment and operation of a transparent and
accountable Government.
My Government is slowly but diligently working
to improve Nauru. Over our three-year term, we will
continue to do so, on a platform of both economic and
political reform, together with good governance. We
believe that we are improving our situation, and the
August election results tell us that we have our
people’s confidence. But it is a slow and painful
recovery, and we appreciate all the help that we can
get.
We appreciate the fact that the United Nations is
strongly aware of the development challenges in the
Pacific region and that it is also cognizant that
assistance has not translated into uniform human
development gains in many places, with the result that
the Pacific is in danger of missing many targets of the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In that
respect, my delegation welcomes and supports the
President’s intention to hold a leaders’ meeting on the
MDGs during the present session.
During the general debate at the sixty-first
session (see A/61/PV.16), we noted in this historic Hall
that the offices and agencies of the United Nations had
no permanent presence in many of the small island
developing States of the Pacific. In June 2006, it was
announced that a coalition comprising the United
Nations Development Programme, UNICEF and the
United Nations Population Fund would open a total of
eight new offices in Pacific island countries, including
my own country, Nauru. We welcomed that historic
announcement, the progress that it marked towards
harmonization with the United Nations and the
assistance and support that the new offices would
provide in developing national capacity and meeting
the MDGs.
As Member States that pay our dues, deploy
peacekeepers and discharge our responsibilities in the
international community, we deserve offices that
enhance the relevance of the United Nations and the
implementation of its policies. We have therefore been
severely disappointed by the lack of progress in
establishing acceptable offices in our countries since
the announcement. The delaying of that initiative, and
the assumptions on the part of the United Nations
concerning the capabilities of our small island States to
recruit staff for such offices, are also short-sighted.
Moreover, the Organization’s definition of
“partnership” for the initiative places a significant
burden on our national Governments. It fails to respond
to our national priorities and our lack of resources, and
therefore weakens the cohesion between the
Organization and our countries.
Despite the lack of visible progress, we are of the
view that the project can be salvaged with its original
intentions and goals intact if there is a will and a
sincere desire to respond to our needs. So we ask the
General Assembly and the Secretariat to ensure that
offices befitting the ideals and the reputation of the
United Nations are opened in our countries. We want to
see the United Nations on the ground in Nauru and
throughout the Pacific region, providing a helping hand
in our pursuit of sustainable development.
There can be no doubt that our Pacific region is
doing its best to implement the commitments made
under the Mauritius Strategy and other international
agreements regarding small island developing States.
The relevant report of the Secretary-General
(A/62/279) makes that very clear, showing that under
its Pacific Plan, the Pacific region has agreed to and is
vigorously pursuing its own sustainable development
priorities, which reflect and acknowledge our
international commitments under the Strategy. The
Secretary-General’s report and the Pacific Plan updates
show progress in some key areas and identify
important initiatives for follow-up action.
However, it is also quite clear that we and the
United Nations need to do much more. That fact is
glaringly obvious in the recent report of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),
which warns of a narrowing window of opportunity
available for slowing down global warming and
climate change. This is an issue that reveals some of
the inequities in the current world development
paradigm: the small island countries contribute very
little to the problem but are likely to be the worst
affected.
The need to do more also stares us in the face
from recent reports on the progress, or lack thereof, in
achieving MDGs. Our region is struggling in many
areas of the MDGs, and it is fair to say, as the
Secretary-General’s report notes, that persistent
capacity constraints are a key obstacle to the
implementation of sustainable development in the
Pacific region this includes Nauru.
Therefore, I take this opportunity to express my
people’s warmest appreciation to our development
partners, led by Australia, Taiwan, New Zealand,
Japan, the European Union and others, for their support
in this and other areas, without which we would have
completely collapsed as a nation and as a people.
However, I hope the Assembly can appreciate that our
region, although vast, suffers both from isolation and
the relatively small size of its countries and
populations.
Even with the best practices in management and
governance, our economies’ sustainable development is
impeded by high transportation costs and diseconomies
of scale. In Nauru, freight adds at least 15 to 20 per
cent to the cost of all imports. Likewise, affordable and
sustainable alternative energy forms are a high priority
for my country and region because, with the ever
increasing cost of fossil fuel, we are having to pay a
high premium for something that contributes both to
global warming and to our potential demise as Pacific
islands.
Professor Jeffrey Sachs has rightly said that,
while we all need to work together to solve world
poverty, the opportunity is there for the developed
countries with their resources and technology to do
something about ending it once and for all. The agreed
official development assistance (ODA) target of 0.7 per
cent of a gross national product is far from being
achieved. This highlights the opportunity for the world
to do much more to both alleviate poverty and remove
the constraints that frustrate the progress of many
developing countries.
Like other highly indebted countries, mine is
doubly burdened by a massive debt left to us by
previous Governments. After careful assessment of
Nauru’s development potential for the next thirty years,
we have come to the sad conclusion that Nauru will
only be able to service a very small portion of that
debt. We will need to seek the forgiveness of those
countries and institutions to which we owe most of the
money.
This Organization prides itself on being inclusive
and on being a champion to everyone; yet my
delegation is extremely disappointed that, despite the
efforts of Nauru and other allies of this cause, the
United Nations continues to ignore the expressed wish
of Taiwan and its 23 million people to become a
member of this Organization.
On the 19 July this year, an application for
membership to the United Nations was delivered to the
Office of the Secretary-General, signed by the
democratically elected President of Taiwan, His
Excellency Chen Shui-bian. Unfortunately, the United
Nations Charter and the rules of procedure of the
Security Council were then contravened. Owing to
poor legal advice, the Office of the Secretary-General
failed to forward Taiwan’s application for membership
to the Security Council, citing General Assembly
resolution 2758 (XXVI) for its failure. Even though
many Member States continue to hide behind
resolution 2758 (XXVI), it should be realized that this
resolution does not declare that Taiwan is a part of the
People’s Republic of China, nor does it preclude
Taiwan from future membership of this body. It
certainly does not support the so-called one China
principle.
Ever since the establishment of the People’s
Republic of China on 1 October 1949, the two sides of
the Taiwan Strait have been governed separately, with
neither side exercising any control or jurisdiction over
the other. Let me be absolutely clear: Taiwan has no
intention of representing the People’s Republic of
China. Taiwan is a free and peace-loving sovereign
State, and its democratically elected Government is the
sole legitimate Government of their island State.
Apart from the legal and moral rights of Taiwan
to be part of the United Nations, there is another
dimension that needs to be taken into account. Taiwan
is one of the largest economies in the world, including
being one of the larger trading partners of other
Members of the United Nations. It is also one of the
top twenty sources of world foreign investment and is
well positioned to assist many of the members of this
body in their development, which it has already
demonstrated. Taiwan is a very important investor and
trading partner for my country and others in my
region even for those that do not recognize it
formally.
My delegation calls on the Office of the
Secretary-General to uphold the integrity of this pre-
eminent Organization and conform to the United
Nations Charter and the rules of procedure of the
Security Council. It must immediately accept and
submit to the Security Council Taiwan’s application for
membership.
Peoples of the world look to the United Nations
and to their leaders to identify and act on major global
challenges that confront the world today. Earlier this
week, we concluded a High-Level Event on Climate
Change. Our discussions encompassed a variety of
views and proposals that we all hope will lead to global
resolve to achieve significant changes. Nauru takes the
view that the international community, particularly
those countries with the capacity that comes with their
status as developed nations, has a responsibility to
provide financial, humanitarian and other assistance to
small island developing States that stand to suffer the
most dire consequences of global climate change.
Of course, we must acknowledge and express
gratitude for those aid policies that have been proposed
and established, but more is needed to avert a potential
disaster, especially to the vulnerable small island
nations. Therefore, we ask that ongoing efforts be
continued and urge Member States to consider
increasing their financial support, including easier
access to the Adaptation Fund.
However, capital investments alone are not
sufficient. Technology, skills and knowledge are
required to guide us in our response to the present
challenge. Furthermore, civil society and non-
governmental organizations must cooperate with each
other in acquiring and building the capacity we need to
address this problem.
The world situation demands a renewed,
revitalized and more responsive United Nations now
more than ever. We need to see the strengthening of
this multilateral institution through the revitalization of
the General Assembly and comprehensive reform of
the Security Council through intergovernmental
negotiations. All of that must move forward with a
common vision for a more coherent United Nations
system capable of delivering as one, sparing no efforts
to continue strengthening the three pillars of peace and
security, development and human rights.
Nauru is of the view that the comprehensive
reform of the Security Council will not be complete
without Japan, India, Brazil and Germany as permanent
members.
In closing, I wish to remind this Assembly of the
Secretary-General’s recent observation of the United
Nations, whereupon he stated:
“The true measure of success for the United
Nations is not how much we promise, but how
much we deliver for those who need us most.”
(A/61/PV.31)
As we move forward our discussions on the many
challenging and complex issues before us, let us do so
with the best of intentions, and more importantly, let us
make good our promise to deliver.
Finally, while I stand in this great country of the
United States of America, the land of the free, I cannot
help but remember that its people have put their trust in
God. On my island country of Nauru, also a land of the
free, we have placed our belief in God’s will first.
Therefore, to every human being on our planet Earth, I
beseech each and every one of us to dedicate ourselves
to hold true to our God’s will.