Palau, 2007

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.