UN General Assembly
2009

our friends in Taiwan. The United Nations and its specialized agencies must find ways to ensure the meaningful participation of the 23 million people of Taiwan. Just as their economic strength has merited inclusion in the WTO and the universality of global health challenges have logically compelled their participation in the World Health Assembly, so too should the global reach of climate change merit their 09-53165 22 meaningful participation in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The interconnected networks of global air travel and our shared safety concerns similarly mandate the participation of Taiwan in the International Civil Aviation Organization. The Government and people of Taiwan have advanced a reasonable and responsible policy of engagement to usher a new era in cross-strait relations. The international community can and should encourage and reward this fledgling rapprochement with meaningful participation in the relevant specialized agencies. Any cursory analysis of the excluded and the included, of the discontented and the defenders of the status quo, will quickly reveal that many current inequities are rooted in our colonial history and that the