‘Tuvalu Sovereignty Not Negotiable’: PM Natano

News Desk

New York: Our sovereignty is not negotiable, and we will be working with the international community to bring an end to unnecessary conversations in academic and diplomatic circles that question Tuvalu’s statehood, said Tuvalu Prime Minister Kausea Natano.

Speaking on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Kausea stated that Tuvalu could be one of the first nations to sink beneath the sea as a result of climate change but that doesn’t mean its statehood is up for discussion.

Tuvalu is sinking with 40 per cent of the atoll nation’s capital, Funafuti, already below sea level at high tide. Its population of 11,000 is spread across nine islands that rise less than five metres above sea level which places Tuvalu’s population under enormous threat from sea level rise.

Two of the atolls represented on its flag of 11 stars have already disappeared, and even the higher-lying areas could become uninhabitable by 2100 as a result of salt contaminating its land and water supply.

The 1933 Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States holds that a state consists of a defined territory, a permanent population, a government, and the capacity to interact with other states.

If the territory is swallowed up or no one can live on what is left of it, then at least one of the criteria is no longer met.

But while Tuvalu’s land mass accounts for just 26 square km (10 square miles), around the size of seven Central Parks, its maritime territory covers a vast 800,000 square km.

The convention is ambiguous on the question of whether the territory is wet or dry, and there is no precedent for revoking the status of a UN member state, leaving the matter fuzzy. AFP/APP