| Tuvalu News |
PACIFIC ISLANDS REPORT
Pacific Islands Development Program/East-West Center
Center for Pacific Islands Studies/University of Hawai‘i at Manoa
TUVALU SEEKS UN SEAT
FUNAFUTI, Tuvalu (January 11, 2000 – Radio Australia)---Tuvalu has applied to become the 189th member of the United Nations.
A letter from Prime Minister Ionatana Ionatana has been circulated as a UN document.
The application first has to be endorsed by the 15-member Security Council and then by the 188-nation General Assembly.
Tuvalu, with a population of about 10,500, consists of nine coral atolls in the South Pacific. It gained independence from Great Britain in October 1978.
Last September, the UN General Assembly admitted three other Pacific island nations -- Kiribati, Nauru and Tonga.