El Salvador endorses Taiwan’s United Nations entry

The motion, which requests that the U.N. General Assembly press the Security Council to deal with Taiwan’s membership application according to established procedures, was submitted Aug. 14 to the General Assembly, in the hope that the motion can be included on the agenda of the 62nd regular session of the General Assembly set to open Sept. 18 in New York.

The General Committee is expected to meet Sept. 19 to finalize the agenda of the session.

The other 15 diplomatic allies of Taiwan that have endorsed the motion are Belize, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Honduras, Kiribati, Malawi, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Sao Tome and Principe, the Solomon Islands, Swaziland, and Tuvalu.

The Republic of China has tried without success to re-enter the United Nations since 1993. This year marks the first time it has changed tactics by bidding to join the world body under the name of Taiwan.

President Chen Shui-bian sent a membership application letter on behalf of Taiwan to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon July 19, but the letter was returned by Ban based on U.N. Resolution 2758, which U.N. officials said is the basis of the “one China” policy of the United Nations.

On July 31, Chen sent a second letter to Ban, urging him to reconsider his decision, and one to Wang Guangya, China’s permanent representative to the United Nations, who served as rotating president of the Security Council for July. Both letters were also returned.

Taiwan has strongly protested Ban’s move, claiming that only the Security Council and the General Assembly have the authority to review and decide on membership applications and that the U.N. Secretariat does not have the power to decide on such matters.

Also, Taiwan argued that Resolution 2758 neither grants China the right to represent Taiwan at the United Nations nor states that Taiwan is either a part of China or the People’s Republic of China.

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