PINA

By Nic Maclellan In a fast moving and complex situation, both supporters and opponents of independence in New Caledonia are preparing for the outcome of French elections later this month. Islands Business correspondent Nic Maclellan provides this comprehensive, special report on what this means for the conflict in New Caledonia. Within hours of his defeat in recent European Parliament elections, President...

The Permanent representative of Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) to the United Nations in New York, Ambassador Jeem Lippwe has deposited his island nation’s instrument of ratification for the agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement). The instrument...

Preparations for the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Samoa are in full swing, with assurances from the Samoa Police Commissioner, Auapa'au Logoitino Filipo, that international officers deployed for the event will not carry firearms. Responding to inquiries, Commissioner Auapa'au emphasised that all participating countries have been informed that their officers will not require arms while in Samoa...

About 200 persons are still to be recovered with 11 bodies retrieved and buried from the 24 May Landslide in Enga’s Mulitaka, according to Enga administrator Sandis Tsaka. Tsaka, who is also the disaster committee coordinator, said the committee was working to restore and rebuild lives of those displaced. Tsaka said that data collection was a challenge due to the remoteness...

Tonga’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Titilupe Fanetupouvava’u Tu’ivakano, has signed the Samoa Agreement at the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS)S Secretariat in Brussels, formally presenting the ratification of the new European Union-OACPS Partnership Agreement. On 15 November last year, the EU and its member states signed a comprehensive Partnership Agreement with the members of the...

Fiji's President Ratu Wiliame Katonivere highlighted the concept of Fiji's 'Ocean of Peace' as world leaders seek a peaceful resolution to the war of aggression by the Russian Federation in Ukraine. Speaking at the “Summit on Peace in Ukraine” roundtable on the Human Dimension of the war in Ukraine, President Katonivere highlighted that from Fiji’s perspective, addressing the human dimensions...

Opinion by Sefanaia Nawadra, SPREP DG. Every year on 16 June, we celebrate the anniversary of the signing of the Treaty which officially established the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) as an independent intergovernmental organisation, also known as the SPREP Treaty. This year marks 31 years since the Treaty was signed. As we celebrate another SPREP Day, I...

Counting is underway in a highly anticipated national census in Papua New Guinea that is hoped will dispel wildly diverging population estimates ranging from 9.6 million to nearly twice the number. Just after midnight on Monday, Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape became the first person in the country to be recorded, as part of a broadcast to raise...

The Republic of Fiji Military Forces (RFMF) has announced it will convene an independent Board of Inquiry (BOI) on the grounding of the Fiji Navy vessel, RFNS Puamau. RFNS Puamau hit a reef and ran aground in a passage close to the far-flung island of Fulaga in the Lau group. The incident occurred last Tuesday, only a month after the multi-million-dollar...

Diplomatic relations between Australia and China may be warming, but Foreign Minister Penny Wong says the contest for influence in the Pacific is far from over. Senator Wong says previous governments were inactive in maintaining Australia influence in the region, and that her government is working to make Australia the Pacific's number one security partner. Her comments come as she prepares...