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President solicits support in South Pacific for WEO

President Chen Shui-bian receives a traditional Marshall Islands lei on his arrival in Majuro yesterday for the start of the second Taiwan-Pacific Allies Summit. PHOTO: AFP

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday solicited support from Taiwan's South Pacific allies in his campaign for the establishment of a World Environment Organization (WEO) under a UN framework.

Chen, who arrived in the Marshall Islands yesterday morning on a three-day state visit, urged the presidents of the Marshall Islands, Palau, Kiribati, Nauru, the Solomon Islands and Tuvalu to write to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and other UN member countries to jointly push for the establishment of the WEO to ensure sustainable development as well as the continued survival of humankind.

Addressing the opening of the second leadership summit between Taiwan and its South Pacific allies, Chen said the adverse impact of civilization on the environment had reached an immeasurable level, and that the impact would grow still more severe.

In the past, he said, militarily powerful nations conducted nuclear tests in the South Pacific; now industrially advanced countries discharge excessive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, causing global warming, climate change and causing sea levels to rise, which threaten low-lying Pacific islands.

"No country deserves international recognition more than Taiwan."

Tommy Remengesau, Palauan president

The consequences of such environmental abuse not only pose developmental dilemmas for South Pacific nations, including the six maintaining formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but also pose a severe threat to these countries' sustainable existence, Chen said.

He reiterated that the world now needed a global organization capable of realizing the ideals of environmental protection, of integrating the powers of various countries and of uniting every nation, without exception, to solve these problems.

Saying that he launched his campaign in May this year calling for the establishment of a WEO, Chen said he would like to take the opportunity offered by the leadership summit to once again push for advocacy of the program, which he said would also be a reflection of the spirit and goals championed by Palauan President Tommy Remengesau in his "Micronesian Challenges" published in 2005.

Chen said that he also keenly looked forward to the presidents of Taiwan's South Pacific allies writing to Ban and leaders of all UN member countries to push for the establishment of a WEO to benefit the sustainable development and continued survival of the world's people.

Meanwhile, the leaders of the Marshall Islands, Palau, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Nauru and the Solomon Islands said the international community was unjust to prevent Taiwan having an international voice.

"No country deserves international recognition more than Taiwan," Remengesau said.

He called the UN's decision last month to reject Taiwan's application for membership "justice delayed," but said the nation would ultimately prevail.

Additional reporting by AFP
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