Palau, 2005

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

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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

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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.