Palau's president has joined calls from Kiribati and Nauru for the UN to recognise Taiwan.
Palau President, Tommy Remengesau Junior, addresses the UN General Assembly Photo: UN
The island's fight for international recognition has taken a battering this year, with three countries switching allegiance to Beijing.
Only 17 countries - most of them small island nations in the Pacific and Caribbean - still recognise Taiwan.
Tommy Remengesau told the UN General Assembly recognising Taiwan was in their interests.
"We urge the United Nations to seek a solution to include Taiwan in all its processes including the ICAO and the WHO. My government firmly believes that Taiwan's inclusion in the UN system will greatly benefit the UN's work and its sustainable development agenda towards 2030 and beyond."
The leaders of Kiribati and Nauru in their addresses said the United Nations was rendered irrelevant by its exclusion of the more than 20 million people who live in Taiwan.
Both Taiwan and China have employed chequebook diplomacy to woo allies over the years but the latter's immense wealth and its focus on delivering massive infrastructure projects has started to tell in recent years.
