By DPA
New York : UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon dismissed Taiwan’s most recent requests to gain admission to the world organisation, saying that the Taiwanese had no legal basis to join.
“This matter was carefully considered by the secretariat (of the UN) and in light of Resolution 2758, it was not legally possible to receive the purported applications for membership,” Ban said in answer to a question of whether he had received the requests.
The UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 2758 in 1971, expelling the Republic of China or Taiwan in favour of the People’s Republic of China, the communist government in Beijing. The Republic of China was one of the 50 original founders of the UN in 1945, but the world body switched allegiance to China after the US recognised the Beijing government.
Ban said the Taiwanese application to regain a UN seat should be discussed by UN members, who are expected to take up the issue Wednesday when a committee of the General Assembly meets to set the agenda for the body’s 62nd session, which opened Tuesday.
Known as the General Committee, the group has refused to put the issue on the assembly’s agenda every year since 1993 – effectively ending Taiwan’s hopes of membership until the following year – and is expected to do the same Wednesday. The majority of committee members have sided with China. Taiwan has diplomatic relations with only 24 countries in the UN.
Ban said the UN position, deriving from Resolution 2758, recognises China as the sole representative in the General Assembly, and he is abiding by that document.
The Taiwanese government of President Chen Shui-bian has since July sent at least three letters to Ban and the UN Security Council demanding UN admission. Those letters were returned without Ban reading them.
Chen’s UN applications angered the United States, which is Taiwan’s only ally, as well as China, which considers Taiwan a runaway province that should be reunified with the mainland. But Chen hopes to break away from the current limbo state and return to the UN as an independent and sovereign nation.