UN General Assembly
1997

Pacific Forum grouping, belong to the Asian Group while, for historical reasons, New Zealand belongs to the Group of Western European and Other States. The fundamental importance we accord our membership of the institutions of the South Pacific Forum, of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Council and of the Regional Forum of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), and our relationship with ASEAN itself, should be able to be better reflected in the regional groupings. We accordingly see value in a reconfiguration of New York electoral groupings to bring them more in line with those used elsewhere in the United Nations system, where New Zealand in most cases sits with our South Pacific partners and our East Asian neighbours. Developments in other regions will result in further anomalies in the present structure. We see at a future stage some long and complex negotiations over regional seat allocations for a revised system of regional groups. New Zealand of course will join with others in negotiating new and equitable allocations of seats. While we look forward