Palau

On behalf of the President of Palau, Tommy E. Remengesau, Jr., and the people of Palau, let me begin by offering my congratulations to the General Assembly President on his election and assuring him of our cooperation in the coming year. We express our appreciation to the Group of Asian States and the General Assembly for the confidence they have demonstrated by electing a representative of Palau as a Vice-President. Palau is the smallest country in the history of the United Nations to have this honour, and we take it very seriously. Palau congratulates the Secretary-General on his leadership on stopping the genocide in Darfur. We were moved by the calls for immediate action that we heard from President Bush and others here at the United Nations. In this respect, I wish to announce that Palau will send peacekeepers to Darfur and will play our part in this critical demonstration of international concern. Despite our capacity issues, this will not be Palau’s first peacekeeping deployment. But while we are a responsible and proud Member of the United Nations, we note the continuing lack of a permanent United Nations presence in Palau. Last June, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Population Fund and UNICEF announced that eight new joint offices would open in Pacific island countries, including Palau. We welcomed that historic accomplishment, but we are concerned at the fact that the offices have yet to open. Existing mechanisms appear to have blocked progress on the ground. But we believe that the original goals and intentions of the project can be salvaged if there is a will to respond to the needs of small island nations like Palau. We would welcome the intervention and assistance of our partners, as well as the recommitment of the Secretariat to our original shared goals. We note the President’s call to ensure that the United Nations as an organization and we as Member States are properly prepared to confront terrorism. Palau has worked to improve its anti-terrorism capacity. We have also met with the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate to advance our requests for assistance, particularly in the area of combating money-laundering and terrorism financing. Unfortunately, the efforts of the Directorate have been insufficient. Our hope is that during the sixty-second session of the General Assembly, the United Nations will be able to help small countries in addressing this threat and in meeting our Security Council obligations. The Pacific is home to some of the world’s largest and most important biodiversity hotspots. Our ocean ecosystems provide the backbone for Palau’s existence, and we are committed to their preservation. Last year, our nations banded together to protect vulnerable marine ecosystems from deep-sea bottom trawling, a destructive fishing practice responsible for 95 per cent of worldwide damage to seamounts. As a result, the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organization adopted interim measures that took a substantial step towards eliminating this unsustainable practice. We encourage all other regional fisheries management organizations and flag States to follow this example, and we remind them of the deadlines to take action. Palau has been vocal in its crusade to end bottom trawling because of its effects on ocean ecosystems. The North Pacific is home to some of the world’s best fisheries. Their diversity is the key reason for the Micronesia Challenge, an initiative launched by President Remengesau, whereby countries and territories of Micronesia have joined together to conserve 30 per cent of near-shore marine resources and 20 per cent of land resources by the year 2020. This project is the first of its kind in the world. It covers 6.7 million square miles of ocean, and it will help protect 10 per cent of the world’s coral reefs, including more than 60 threatened species. While eliminating bottom trawling and establishing protected areas are certainly important actions, they will be fruitless if rapid progress on climate change cannot be made at the international level. We are no longer in total control of our destiny. When temperatures increase, our corals bleach, the seas rise and the oceans acidify, threatening to demolish our marine biodiversity, jeopardizing our livelihoods and eventually destroying our identity. In the light of the high vulnerability of small island developing States to the impact of climate change, we stress the absolute need to reach an agreement on a set of quantified emission reduction targets for the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. These emission reduction targets must be ambitious, must reflect the urgency of our collective circumstances and must be consistent with a mitigation framework that protects the most vulnerable parties to the Convention, in both the short and the long-term. It is imperative that the effectiveness of the post-2012 regime address the issue of mitigating the impacts of climate change on small island developing States, as the key benchmark of its adequacy and effectiveness. We note too the ongoing debate on General Assembly reform and join our voices with others who note the need for concrete results on Security Council reform. Without Security Council reform, there can be no genuine United Nations reform. The early conclusion of the discussion is essential. Japan has demonstrated its concern for and commitment to the Pacific and the international community. It should be a permanent member of the Security Council. That is true too of India, the largest democracy among developing nations, whose contributions to global security have earned it the right to a permanent seat on the Security Council. We have supported and continue to support the draft resolution of the Group of Four and hope that the Assembly will address the resolution this year. We also note our disappointment that Taiwan continues to be excluded from this Hall. The world would benefit from Taiwan’s membership in the United Nations and other international institutions. We were disappointed that the Secretary-General failed to follow the Charter and the rules of the Security Council by refusing to transmit and circulate Taiwan’s membership application to the Security Council and the General Assembly. Ultimately, legitimate democracies must be recognized and supported across the breadth of our planet no matter how large or small the country. On behalf of Palau, a small and peaceful island nation in the wide Pacific Ocean, let me thank all of you in my country’s native language: Kom Kmal Mesulang.