A high note for the Pacific

By Ian Williams

THE opening of the UN General Assembly on September 17 was a big day for the Pacific. The Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands were promoted from UN trust territories to full UN members in their own right.

In August the UN Security Council approved their applications without a vote. Approval by the General assembly was then a formality since there were, for example, no objections from Yemen and Cuba, who it was feared might object to the intimate US connection implied by the Compacts of Free Association.

Among the permanent five members, the British were indeed unhappy with the applications. London’s view is that the two states do not have the legal attributes of sovereignty since the Compact restricts their control of defence and foreign affairs. Perhaps anxious to make friends in the Pacific, France not only supported the application it obligingly adver tised the British objections.

London decided finally that it was not worth upsetting Washington.

More substantial objections came from the Soviets. After North and South Korea had both been accepted, there was an adjournment for a day to consider a formula which would meet their objec tions. In the end, on August 9, the applications were accepted but the President of the Security Council, Jose Ayala Lasso of Ecuador, issued a state ment that it was not to be taken as a precedent but was decided “on the basis of the merits of that request”.

While the Soviets shared the legalistic objections of the British, they were believed to be worried about the impli cations for future attempts by Soviet Republics to apply. Indeed it is now likely that the member republics of whichever form of union emerges from the USSR will be citing the Pacific precedent for their own membership applications.

Wilfred Kendall, Marshall Islands ambassador to Washington, has watched the position of the former trust territories change from neglected dependency to

full independence.

He was a member of the old Micro nesian Congress, and then for a time the Minister for External Affairs of the Marshalls. Later he was representative in Hawaii before becoming representative to the US. In 1989 the Compact was altered to change his title to ambassador.

In his view that symbolised how the relationship had changed over the years

of negotiations.

“The Compact is a good example of how small nations can cooperate with big nations and still have a large role for themselves. After all, the UN approved Free Association as an option for countries.”

At the beginning, some form of commonwealth status was the best that was envisaged. “Nauru was the trailblazer, even though it never joined the UN. In the early days, Hammer deßoburt came to us and said that there was no substitute for independence”, acknowledges Kendall.

How did he justify the heavy expense of joining the UN? “We want to cut down the number of our overseas offices, and at the UN we can maintain contact with everybody else in the world it’s a diplomatic bargain,” he joked. But he admitted, “We are still exploring the costs.”

He added that “There are a lot of areas, like direct access to UN agencies

like UNESCO, UNDP, and UNFPA which are very important to us. And of course we want to play an active part in the Climate Change Convention since we will be one of the worst affected. There are a lot of issues on which our interests are best represented by ourselves”.

Agreeing that there were still some reservations about the degree of sover eignty allowed under Compact of Free Association, he was quick to parry them.

“Nowadays everyone wants to break down the barriers like the EC, moving towards the same passport, same cur rency, so the concept of sovereignty is changing. The thing that matters is diversity in unity. On defence we are delegating the responsibilities to the US.

There are provisions in the CFA for termination. In this day and age, it’s best to give responsibility to the specialists.

We make love, the US makes war.

“For a small country like us, we can’t afford to have enemies. We are genuinely non-aligned self interest comes first.

Our foreign policy is malice to none.”D