Marshall Islands, 2006

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.