• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

U.N. chief hopes members will discuss Taiwan's U.N. membership bid

ROC Central News Agency

2007-09-19 11:36:28

    New York, Sept. 18 (CNA) U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he hopes the issue of U.N. membership for Taiwan will be discussed by member states as the 62nd session of the U.N. General Assembly opened Tuesday in New York.

    Ban was referring to a motion, endorsed by 16 of Taiwan's diplomatic allies, to include the issue as a supplementary item on the agenda of the session. "I hope that, accordingly, this question will have to be discussed by the member states, " Ban said during a daily news briefing when asked about his previous decision to return letters written by President Chen Shui-bian requesting membership for Taiwan.

    Ban said that the matter "was very carefully considered by the Secretariat" and that "it was not legally possible to receive" the application based on U.N. Resolution 2758. "By Resolution 2758 of 1971, the General Assembly decided to recognize the representatives of the People's Republic of China as the only legitimate representatives of China to the United Nations. This has been the official position of the United Nations and has not changed since 1971," Ban said.

    Taiwan has not been represented in the United Nations since 1971, when the Republic of China's U.N. seat was taken over by the People's Republic of China. The country is bidding to join the world body under the name Taiwan this year for the first time.

    President Chen first sent a membership application letter to Ban Ki-moon July 19, but the letter was returned on the grounds that the United Nations follows a "one China" policy. Chen sent a second letter to Ban July 31 urging him to reconsider his decision, but that letter was also returned.

    Throwing their weight behind Taiwan, 16 of the country's diplomatic allies submitted a motion to the U.N. General Assembly last month requesting that the Security Council process Taiwan's membership application according to established procedures, because resolution 2758 "did not resolve the issue of representation of the 23 million people of Taiwan in the United Nations."

(By Hwang Jaw-pyng and Y.F. Low)

ENDITEM/Li