Palau slams U.N. for blocking Taiwan delegates from attending Ocean Conference

FILE PHOTO: Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, Portugal's President, and Keriako Tobiko, Kenya's Cabinet Secretary for the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, applaud during the closing of 2022 UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon, Portugal, July 1, 2022. REUTERS/Rodrigo Antunes/File Photo

A representative from the tiny Pacific nation of Palau hit out at the United Nations on Friday for not allowing Taiwanese nationals to be part of its delegation list at the Ocean Conference in Lisbon.

"The U.N. has excluded the 23 million people of Taiwan from the conversation," the delegate said at the conference's closing ceremony. "They were not given badges and were not allowed to be part of our delegation simply because they hold Taiwanese passports.