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Two allies voice their support for Taiwan's UN bid

Two more of Taiwan's diplomatic allies on Monday expressed their support for the country's bid to join the UN at the ongoing annual session of the UN General Assembly.

Speaking at a general session, Tuvaluan Deputy Prime Minister Tavau Teii voiced his disappointment that the world body had refused even to put the issue of Taiwan's membership bid on the agenda of the session.

Teii urged the UN to urgently address the issue of Taiwan's right to join the body, stressing that the nation has the ability to fulfill its obligations as a full member of the world body as required by the UN Charter.

proper resolution

"The United Nations cannot be said to be universal, nor can global peace and security be assured until the issue of membership for Taiwan in the organization is properly resolved," Teii said.

Meanwhile, Patteson Oti, minister of foreign affairs, external trade and immigration of the Solomon Islands, attributed the "indignity" suffered by Taiwan to what he called "organized international hypocrisy" by "a powerful constellation of states interested only in the protection of trade and investment rather than any humanitarian concerns."

Oti urged the General Assembly to implore China to pledge to use peaceful means to settle its sovereignty dispute with Taiwan and proposed that the Security Council launch an investigation into the cross-strait situation to determine whether it was likely to endanger international peace and security.

Also on Monday, the UN representative of Malawi wrote letters to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon; Srgjan Kerim, president of the 62nd session of the General Assembly; and Leslie Christian, Ghana's permanent representative to the UN who is serving as the president of the Security Council this month, urging the world body to deal with Taiwan's application "properly and seriously."

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday rebutted Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi's (楊潔箎) recent remarks at a UN session in which he called Taiwan an inseparable part of China and described Taiwan's planned referendum on its UN bid as a move toward de jure independence.

Yang made the remarks in a speech delivered at a UN General Assembly session on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Cabinet spokesman Shieh Jhy-wey (謝志偉) said yesterday that the boycott by opposition lawmakers of a Cabinet proposal to designate Oct. 24 as "Taiwan United Nations Day" is "unacceptable."

Shieh made the remarks after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and People First Party (PFP) lawmakers blocked the proposal from being placed on the agenda for discussion at Friday's legislative plenary session.

Shieh said that even though the KMT has initiated a campaign for a referendum on pushing for the country's return to the UN under the name "Republic of China," the boycott shows that the KMT opposes the country's UN membership bid.

Describing the campaign to join the UN under the name "Taiwan" as the "common aspiration" of Taiwanese, Shieh said the Cabinet would once again submit the "UN Day" proposal to the legislature.
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