We, the Pacific Islands Forum, represented at this meeting by the governments of Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu, and the United States of America—meet on the occasion of the U.S.-Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Dialogue in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea on 22 May, 2023.
At the first ever U.S.-Pacific Islands Summit in Washington, D.C in September 2022, we announced the Declaration on U.S.-Pacific Partnership. Today, we reaffirm our shared vision for a resilient Pacific region of peace, harmony, security, social inclusion, and prosperity.
We are committed to bolstering Pacific regionalism, with a strong and united Pacific Islands Forum at its center. We will continue to work together to tackle shared challenges such as the climate crisis, to advance inclusive economic growth and social equity for the people of the Pacific and to jointly advocate on shared priorities.
We reaffirm our commitment to comprehensively address the legacies of conflict and the promotion of nuclear nonproliferation, and we acknowledge the nuclear legacy of the Cold War. We remain committed to addressing the Republic of the Marshall Islands’ ongoing environmental, public health concerns, and other welfare concerns.
We support the vision of the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent and recognise its centrality in the strengthening partnership between the United States and the Pacific Islands Forum. This meeting builds on three decades of close cooperation between the United States and the Pacific Islands Forum and we look forward to the Second U.S. – Pacific Islands Forum Summit in 2023.
Finally, and most importantly, we commend and acknowledge the warm hospitality of the Government and people of Papua New Guinea for hosting this Dialogue.
SOURCE: PIFS/PACNEWS
