Palau

Palau warmly congratulates the President on his election to the presidency of the Assembly and assures him of Palau’s full support and cooperation. We pay tribute to his predecessor, Jean Ping of the Gabonese Republic, for his effective leadership. At last week’s historic summit, our leaders created an agenda for the world. It is our task to undertake concrete measures to advance that agenda. While the outcome document may not have addressed every issue of importance in a manner that is satisfactory to all, it is inarguably an excellent starting point for the hard work that now lies before us. We must think of it as a floor, rather than a ceiling, for our efforts. Palau has much to offer and much to gain from a stronger United Nations. We are a new country, this year celebrating our eleventh anniversary as an independent nation and as a Member of the United Nations. As Palau takes its place among the community of nations, a major concern is the development that will enable us to stand on our own. In particular, Palau regards the capacity-building expertise of the United Nations and its agencies as central to these efforts. As the Secretary-General stated earlier this year in his report “In larger freedom”, “one of the great challenges of the new millennium is to insure that all States are strong enough to meet the many challenges they face” (A/59/2005, para. 19). He went on to say, “no country, weak or strong, can realize prosperity in a vacuum” (ibid., para. 24). I fear that just such a vacuum exists in many small island developing States and that Palau is one of them. Not a single United Nations representative can be found in Palau to assist the country in moving forward. The United Nations flag does not fly there. So when a youngster wants to know whether a capacity- building internship or scholarship might be available, there is no one to ask. And when a local environmentalist wants to know whether a Global Environmental Facility Small Grant might be available to assist in the preservation of an endangered species 26 that is important to the whole world, there is no one to help in submitting an application. In like manner, when Palau does its part in ratifying an international agreement, thus accepting the obligation to render complex reports to an international agency, there is no one to help. The United Nations has attempted to fill this vacuum through the creation of regional and subregional centres, which are quite distant from Palau’s shores. While arguably well intentioned, this tactic has failed to provide Palau with the capacity- building required and has, similarly, prevented the world from truly understanding Palau’s needs and aspirations. In this sense, these regional and subregional centres merely replicate the colonial regimes, which the Pacific islands have thrown off — distant capitals making decisions about far-flung provinces. To Palau, strengthening the United Nations means strengthening its marginalized Members. Palau has willingly taken its place as a responsible member of the international community. Heeding the Secretary-General’s call to action, Palau this year proudly deployed a contingent of police peacekeepers, who now serve in East Timor. And in response to the Secretary-General’s stated desire to develop better gender balance in these missions, Palau’s contingent is entirely female. When the world develops important conventions, often with burdensome reporting requirements, Palau steps up and signs them, as was the case last week when Palau’s President Remengesau signed the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism. And when natural disasters strike, Palau responds willingly, making significant financial contributions to remit suffering caused by the tsunami and by Hurricane Katrina. I submit that in both of these cases, Palau’s contributions were, on a per capita basis, among the highest in the world. Palau asks for very little. But now it asks for help, and that help should be forthcoming. As our President Remengesau stated in the Assembly’s 4th meeting, last week, in his address to the world summit: “It is therefore time for the international community, and the United Nations as its representative, to begin to move beyond studies that recognize past failures to achieve sustainable development in our island nations, and to move aggressively forward and to establish a specific programme agenda that recognizes our unique smallness, that appreciates our distinctive diversity, and that respects our island cultures as equal to those in other nations of this world.” Palau’s development challenges are different from those of many of our friends around the world who have taken this podium. Hunger is not an issue at present in paradise. But the challenges that confront the small island nations of the Pacific may ultimately be every bit as devastating as famine. Climate change and sea-level rise threaten to obliterate our islands. The very poignant and moving statement of His Excellency Anote Tong, Beretitenti of the Republic of Kiribati at the 15th meeting last week contained a chilling preview of what the unchecked scourge of carbon emissions could mean to all of the countries in the Pacific, and of course to many other oceans of the world. The President acknowledged that the Government of Kiribati needed now “to seriously consider the option of having to relocate our peoples when necessary”. In this understated Pacific way, the President forces us all to confront a world where whole countries simply disappear from the globe. Is there a more compelling call to action than that? The period leading up to such a catastrophe is upon us. Palau must rely on the maintenance of its extraordinary reefs and waters and its unparalleled biodiversity to attract tourists. Without these assets, it will be unable to develop a sustainable economy and to create jobs, which will allow its children to live and work in their homeland. The other pillar of Palau’s development is its fisheries. For countless generations, our people have relied on their waters for their sustenance. Now, foreign fishing fleets, which have denuded the waters proximate to their own harbours, have come to the Pacific and threaten to do the same. The very food chain is threatened by new fishing practices that, though in their infancy, have begun to damage Pacific seamounts in ways that the scientific community deems alarming. It is for this reason that Palau has called for a moratorium on deep sea bottom trawling until the scientific community can gauge the long-term impact of that practice. We renew that call today and applaud Costa Rica for its leadership on this important issue. We take this opportunity and we are grateful for this opportunity to commend Palau’s bilateral partners and friends who have overcome our new nation’s 27 remoteness to become involved and knowledgeable about our needs and aspirations. The United States has provided in-country diplomatic representation and years of support for our vital democracy. Japan has also provided in-country diplomatic representation and invaluable assistance. Like the United States, Japan has been steadily involved in Palau’s development, and I would submit that this special familiarity with Palau’s people has enhanced Japan and the United States every bit as much as it has aided Palau. Palau has been disappointed by the failure of the General Assembly at its fifty-ninth session to accomplish Security Council reform, particularly because Japan’s deep knowledge of our region would inform Council members who have less familiarity with the situation of the Pacific islands. We supported and continue to support therefore the Group of Four resolution and hope that the sixtieth General Assembly will finish this critical work that was begun last year. A third steady supporter of Palau’s development has been the Republic of China on Taiwan. We continue to assert that the world would be benefited by Taiwan’s membership in this august body. This year Palau was a sponsor of a resolution calling for a proactive role for the United Nations in addressing the rising tensions in the Taiwan Strait. We regret that the debate on that important resolution was foreshortened in the General Committee and that we were prevented from expressing our views on this topic; however we are glad that we have an opportunity to do that now. The people of the Pacific, and the Pacific island nations themselves, are under-represented in the Secretariat and in the governing bodies, commissions and tribunals of the world. Our cohesive and effective regional group, the Pacific Islands Forum, is most fortunate in having Australia and New Zealand among us. But it is time, we submit, for the new island nations to take a more active role and to share their unique and graceful Pacific way with the rest of the world. It is quite possible, I submit, that the islands are marginalized in part by the irrational composition of the regional groups. Strengthening the United Nations should include a realignment of the groups to better reflect the proliferation of Pacific countries, which has occurred in the last 20 years, and the actual geography of the world. This would allow the island nations to compete more effectively for seats on major bodies. For this reason, Palau suggests the reform of the system and the creation of an East Asia and Pacific Group and that this group include, of course with their consent, our friends in Australia and New Zealand.