St Kitts & Nevis: Taiwan Should Be UN Member

Saint Kitts and Nevis says Taiwan, Province of China, should be UN member

Taiwan, Province of China, deserves to become a Member State of the United Nations, the Foreign Minister of Saint Kitts and Nevis told the General Assembly today - a position disputed by the Beijing Government, which says a 1971 resolution on the matter settled it permanently.

Timothy Harris told the Assembly's annual high-level debate, being held at UN Headquarters in New York, that "it is of grave concern that the 23 million people of Taiwan have been denied the right of participation in the UN and its related bodies."

The "exclusion and isolation continued even more aggressively" during the annual session of the Assembly that ended last month, he said. "There were even attempts to muffle the voices of the friends of Taiwan when they implored the UN family to recognize that they are a disenfranchised people."

Dr. Harris said the UN has to remain open for all States to become members of the Organization.

"Experience has shown that membership of the United Nations is not a deterrent to unification - see, for example, East Germany and West Germany. Nor is it the panacea to fragmentation as some have argued with the deconstruction of the former Soviet Union."

He added that "Taiwan has shown that it can be a true partner in development," and its assistance to poor nations as they strive to reach the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by their target date of 2015 could be extremely useful.

Last month, after a marathon debate involving 140 speakers, the Assembly decided for the fifteenth consecutive year to exclude a bid by some Member States to discuss the representation of Taiwan, Province of China, in the world body.

In his address to the high-level debate last Friday, China's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said "Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory" and his country would not permit any challenge to the one China principle or the 1971 Assembly resolution on the issue.

Any attempt to change the situation was doomed to failure, Mr. Yang said, adding that he hoped Member States "will not allow themselves to be manipulated by the Taiwan authorities."

The Foreign Minister stressed: "We will never allow anyone to separate Taiwan from China in any name or in any way."

ENDS

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