Nauru, 2007

I would like to express my

sincere congratulations to Mr. Srgjan Kerim on his

election as President of the General Assembly at its

sixty-second session. My delegation also wishes to

commend his predecessor, Sheikha Haya Rashed

Al-Khalifa, for her leadership of the General Assembly

at its sixty-first session, particularly in addressing the

difficult issues that continue to prevent revitalization of

the General Assembly and reform of the Security

Council. My delegation offers its full cooperation and

support towards the President’s commitment to

continuing with the Organization’s overall reform

agenda and addressing the many challenges ahead.

As this is the first General Assembly session to

be convened since the appointment of His Excellency

Mr. Ban Ki-moon as Secretary-General, my delegation

takes this opportunity to assure him of Nauru’s firm

support and full cooperation in his leadership of the

United Nations.

I am deeply honoured to be addressing this body

for the third consecutive year, this time as the recently

returned leader of our small island State of Nauru. As

members are no doubt aware, when I first took up

office, three years ago, my country was on the brink of

collapse. While Nauru was once a small donor country

with a high income, our wealth was squandered in a

single generation through gross mismanagement and

corruption on the part of previous Governments. Our

past record of poor governance and the need to rebuild

Nauru were the main reasons that our national

sustainable development strategy was initiated by our

Government and given one of its fundamental goals:

the establishment and operation of a transparent and

accountable Government.

My Government is slowly but diligently working

to improve Nauru. Over our three-year term, we will

continue to do so, on a platform of both economic and

political reform, together with good governance. We

believe that we are improving our situation, and the

August election results tell us that we have our

people’s confidence. But it is a slow and painful

recovery, and we appreciate all the help that we can

get.

We appreciate the fact that the United Nations is

strongly aware of the development challenges in the

Pacific region and that it is also cognizant that

assistance has not translated into uniform human

development gains in many places, with the result that

the Pacific is in danger of missing many targets of the

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In that

respect, my delegation welcomes and supports the

President’s intention to hold a leaders’ meeting on the

MDGs during the present session.

During the general debate at the sixty-first

session (see A/61/PV.16), we noted in this historic Hall

that the offices and agencies of the United Nations had

no permanent presence in many of the small island

developing States of the Pacific. In June 2006, it was

announced that a coalition comprising the United

Nations Development Programme, UNICEF and the

United Nations Population Fund would open a total of

eight new offices in Pacific island countries, including

my own country, Nauru. We welcomed that historic

announcement, the progress that it marked towards

harmonization with the United Nations and the

assistance and support that the new offices would

provide in developing national capacity and meeting

the MDGs.

As Member States that pay our dues, deploy

peacekeepers and discharge our responsibilities in the

international community, we deserve offices that

enhance the relevance of the United Nations and the

implementation of its policies. We have therefore been

severely disappointed by the lack of progress in

establishing acceptable offices in our countries since

the announcement. The delaying of that initiative, and

the assumptions on the part of the United Nations

concerning the capabilities of our small island States to

recruit staff for such offices, are also short-sighted.

Moreover, the Organization’s definition of

“partnership” for the initiative places a significant

burden on our national Governments. It fails to respond

to our national priorities and our lack of resources, and

therefore weakens the cohesion between the

Organization and our countries.

Despite the lack of visible progress, we are of the

view that the project can be salvaged with its original

intentions and goals intact if there is a will and a

sincere desire to respond to our needs. So we ask the

General Assembly and the Secretariat to ensure that

offices befitting the ideals and the reputation of the

United Nations are opened in our countries. We want to

see the United Nations on the ground in Nauru and

throughout the Pacific region, providing a helping hand

in our pursuit of sustainable development.

There can be no doubt that our Pacific region is

doing its best to implement the commitments made

under the Mauritius Strategy and other international

agreements regarding small island developing States.

The relevant report of the Secretary-General

(A/62/279) makes that very clear, showing that under

its Pacific Plan, the Pacific region has agreed to and is

vigorously pursuing its own sustainable development

priorities, which reflect and acknowledge our

international commitments under the Strategy. The

Secretary-General’s report and the Pacific Plan updates

show progress in some key areas and identify

important initiatives for follow-up action.

However, it is also quite clear that we and the

United Nations need to do much more. That fact is

glaringly obvious in the recent report of the

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),

which warns of a narrowing window of opportunity

available for slowing down global warming and

climate change. This is an issue that reveals some of

the inequities in the current world development

paradigm: the small island countries contribute very

little to the problem but are likely to be the worst

affected.

The need to do more also stares us in the face

from recent reports on the progress, or lack thereof, in

achieving MDGs. Our region is struggling in many

areas of the MDGs, and it is fair to say, as the

Secretary-General’s report notes, that persistent

capacity constraints are a key obstacle to the

implementation of sustainable development in the

Pacific region this includes Nauru.

Therefore, I take this opportunity to express my

people’s warmest appreciation to our development

partners, led by Australia, Taiwan, New Zealand,

Japan, the European Union and others, for their support

in this and other areas, without which we would have

completely collapsed as a nation and as a people.

However, I hope the Assembly can appreciate that our

region, although vast, suffers both from isolation and

the relatively small size of its countries and

populations.

Even with the best practices in management and

governance, our economies’ sustainable development is

impeded by high transportation costs and diseconomies

of scale. In Nauru, freight adds at least 15 to 20 per

cent to the cost of all imports. Likewise, affordable and

sustainable alternative energy forms are a high priority

for my country and region because, with the ever

increasing cost of fossil fuel, we are having to pay a

high premium for something that contributes both to

global warming and to our potential demise as Pacific

islands.

Professor Jeffrey Sachs has rightly said that,

while we all need to work together to solve world

poverty, the opportunity is there for the developed

countries with their resources and technology to do

something about ending it once and for all. The agreed

official development assistance (ODA) target of 0.7 per

cent of a gross national product is far from being

achieved. This highlights the opportunity for the world

to do much more to both alleviate poverty and remove

the constraints that frustrate the progress of many

developing countries.

Like other highly indebted countries, mine is

doubly burdened by a massive debt left to us by

previous Governments. After careful assessment of

Nauru’s development potential for the next thirty years,

we have come to the sad conclusion that Nauru will

only be able to service a very small portion of that

debt. We will need to seek the forgiveness of those

countries and institutions to which we owe most of the

money.

This Organization prides itself on being inclusive

and on being a champion to everyone; yet my

delegation is extremely disappointed that, despite the

efforts of Nauru and other allies of this cause, the

United Nations continues to ignore the expressed wish

of Taiwan and its 23 million people to become a

member of this Organization.

On the 19 July this year, an application for

membership to the United Nations was delivered to the

Office of the Secretary-General, signed by the

democratically elected President of Taiwan, His

Excellency Chen Shui-bian. Unfortunately, the United

Nations Charter and the rules of procedure of the

Security Council were then contravened. Owing to

poor legal advice, the Office of the Secretary-General

failed to forward Taiwan’s application for membership

to the Security Council, citing General Assembly

resolution 2758 (XXVI) for its failure. Even though

many Member States continue to hide behind

resolution 2758 (XXVI), it should be realized that this

resolution does not declare that Taiwan is a part of the

People’s Republic of China, nor does it preclude

Taiwan from future membership of this body. It

certainly does not support the so-called one China

principle.

Ever since the establishment of the People’s

Republic of China on 1 October 1949, the two sides of

the Taiwan Strait have been governed separately, with

neither side exercising any control or jurisdiction over

the other. Let me be absolutely clear: Taiwan has no

intention of representing the People’s Republic of

China. Taiwan is a free and peace-loving sovereign

State, and its democratically elected Government is the

sole legitimate Government of their island State.

Apart from the legal and moral rights of Taiwan

to be part of the United Nations, there is another

dimension that needs to be taken into account. Taiwan

is one of the largest economies in the world, including

being one of the larger trading partners of other

Members of the United Nations. It is also one of the

top twenty sources of world foreign investment and is

well positioned to assist many of the members of this

body in their development, which it has already

demonstrated. Taiwan is a very important investor and

trading partner for my country and others in my

region even for those that do not recognize it

formally.

My delegation calls on the Office of the

Secretary-General to uphold the integrity of this pre-

eminent Organization and conform to the United

Nations Charter and the rules of procedure of the

Security Council. It must immediately accept and

submit to the Security Council Taiwan’s application for

membership.

Peoples of the world look to the United Nations

and to their leaders to identify and act on major global

challenges that confront the world today. Earlier this

week, we concluded a High-Level Event on Climate

Change. Our discussions encompassed a variety of

views and proposals that we all hope will lead to global

resolve to achieve significant changes. Nauru takes the

view that the international community, particularly

those countries with the capacity that comes with their

status as developed nations, has a responsibility to

provide financial, humanitarian and other assistance to

small island developing States that stand to suffer the

most dire consequences of global climate change.

Of course, we must acknowledge and express

gratitude for those aid policies that have been proposed

and established, but more is needed to avert a potential

disaster, especially to the vulnerable small island

nations. Therefore, we ask that ongoing efforts be

continued and urge Member States to consider

increasing their financial support, including easier

access to the Adaptation Fund.

However, capital investments alone are not

sufficient. Technology, skills and knowledge are

required to guide us in our response to the present

challenge. Furthermore, civil society and non-

governmental organizations must cooperate with each

other in acquiring and building the capacity we need to

address this problem.

The world situation demands a renewed,

revitalized and more responsive United Nations now

more than ever. We need to see the strengthening of

this multilateral institution through the revitalization of

the General Assembly and comprehensive reform of

the Security Council through intergovernmental

negotiations. All of that must move forward with a

common vision for a more coherent United Nations

system capable of delivering as one, sparing no efforts

to continue strengthening the three pillars of peace and

security, development and human rights.

Nauru is of the view that the comprehensive

reform of the Security Council will not be complete

without Japan, India, Brazil and Germany as permanent

members.

In closing, I wish to remind this Assembly of the

Secretary-General’s recent observation of the United

Nations, whereupon he stated:

“The true measure of success for the United

Nations is not how much we promise, but how

much we deliver for those who need us most.”

(A/61/PV.31)

As we move forward our discussions on the many

challenging and complex issues before us, let us do so

with the best of intentions, and more importantly, let us

make good our promise to deliver.

Finally, while I stand in this great country of the

United States of America, the land of the free, I cannot

help but remember that its people have put their trust in

God. On my island country of Nauru, also a land of the

free, we have placed our belief in God’s will first.

Therefore, to every human being on our planet Earth, I

beseech each and every one of us to dedicate ourselves

to hold true to our God’s will.