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U.N. General Assembly upholds decision to exclude Taiwan issue

ROC Central News Agency

2007-09-22 14:00:16

    New York, Sept. 21 (CNA) The U.N. General Assembly upheld Friday the General Committee's decision to exclude the Taiwan membership issue from the agenda of its 62nd session which opened this week, despite efforts by some of Taiwan's diplomatic allies seeking a reversal of the decision.

    At Friday's plenary meeting, during which the General Assembly approved 163 agenda items recommended by the General Committee, 14 of Taiwan's diplomatic allies spoke up to challenge the committee's recommendation not to consider an item endorsed by 16 of Taiwan's allies urging the Security Council to process Taiwan's membership application in accordance with due procedure.

    The allies included Belize, Burkina Faso, El Salvador, Gambia, Honduras, the Marshall Islands, Palau, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the Solomon Islands, Sao Tome and Principe, Swaziland, and Tuvalu.

    China, in turn, mobilized 141 member states to speak against including the item on the agenda.

    While the United States, Canada and Japan did not take a stance on the issue, the United Kingdom and France, which were in favor of the General Committee's recommendation, stressed that Taiwan and China should seek a peaceful resolution to their differences through dialogue.

    After a marathon debate lasting more than four hours, General Assembly President Srgjan Kerim ruled that the item should not be included on the agenda on the grounds that member states could not reach a consensus on the issue.

    Taiwan officials posted in New York said the country's allies are expected to raise the issue of U.N. membership for Taiwan again during the general debate, slated for Sept. 25 to Oct. 13.

    Taiwan's representative to the United States, Joseph Wu, said Taiwan must fight for every opportunity for open discussion of the membership issue, although the country is fully aware that the chance of the issue being included on the agenda is slim owing to China's opposition.

    According to Wu, such open discussion will allow the world to hear the voices of the Taiwan people and be aware of the unfair treatment received by Taiwan.

    In Taipei, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Yang Tzu-pao said this marked the first time that the issue of Taiwan's representation has been discussed so extensively at a plenary meeting of the General Assembly, which he said shows that Taiwan's bid has received a high level of attention from the international community.

    Also, Yang described the United States' silence at the meeting as a "friendly response" to Taiwan's efforts in communicating on the issue with Washington, which has openly stated that it does not support membership for Taiwan in international organizations where statehood is required.

    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. While the country, with the support of its diplomatic allies, has tried without success to have the United Nations consider the issue of its representation since 1993, this year marks the first time that it has applied to join the world body under the name Taiwan.

(By Lillian Lin, Jaw-pyng Hwang, Jorge Liu and Y.F. Low)

ENDITEM/Li