PINA

By Rowena Acraman In a resounding call for inclusive leadership and gender equality, Cook Islands Minister for Internal Affair, Vainetutai Rose Brown, Chair of the Pacific Islands Forum Women Leaders Meeting, shared a powerful speech Thursday in Suva. The first ever face-to-face meeting at the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIF)brought together distinguished ministers, youth representatives, and advocates from the expansive Pacific...

Police chiefs from 22 Pacific Islands nations are meeting in Queensland this week for the 50th annual conference and talks on tackling cybercrime and child exploitation. Australian Federal Police (AFP) chief, Reece Kershaw said this Pacific Islands Chiefs of Police (PICP) Conference marks a special occasion for them to celebrate the strength of their partnership. “As Pacific Leaders, we draw on...

The Pacific Parliamentarians Alliance on Deep Sea Mining (PPADSM) has welcomed the call by the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) Leaders for a Pacific wide moratorium on deep sea mining. Leaders from Fiji, Front De Liberation Nationale Kanak Socialiste (FLNKS), Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu agreed that no underwater seabed mining should take place in their respective jurisdictions, and...

Forum Secretary General Henry Puna has challenged Pacific Islands Forum Women leaders Thursday saying ‘there is no place for violence in our region, and it is on all of us to make that a reality’. “This is my challenge to all of us, this Thursday, 31st day of August, 2023. Let September bring with it new commitment to prevent and...

Samoa's Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata'afa has again raised deep concerns about the exodus of Pacific workers to Australia and New Zealand, arguing that countries like hers should not been seen merely as "outposts" which "grow" labourers for developed nations. The number of Pacific Island nationals heading to Australia under the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme has grown rapidly...

Ministers from Governments and Ministries across the region will be in Suva this week for the second Pacific Islands Forum Women Leaders meeting to be held from 31 August -01 September 2023. Centered around the meeting theme Our Pacific Way: Strengthened Commitment to Gender Equality, Equity and Social Inclusion. The meeting will be chaired by Vainetutai Rose Toki-Brown, Cook Islands Minister...

The Australian Greens leader has written to Pacific island elders urging them to reject a bid to co-host a major environmental summit unless the government stops opening new coal and gas projects. Adam Bandt told Pacific leaders they should use their leverage over Australia - which is pushing for a refresh of relations with the region - to force it...

The leaders of five Melanesian nations have agreed to write to the French President Emmanuel Macron “expressing their strong opposition” to the results of the third New Caledonia referendum. In December 2021, more than 96 percent of people voted against full sovereignty, but the pro-independence movement FLNKS has refused to recognise the result because of a boycott by the Kanak...

By Len Garae in Port Vila The Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) has failed West Papua, says a Vanuatu government champion of West Papuan self-determination. Minister for Climate Change Adaptation Ralph Regenvanu, a former foreign minister and who is also a pioneer spokesman for freedom for the Melanesian people of West Papua, said this when delivering his remarks at the closing of...

Pacific Trade Invest (PTI), the region’s leading trade and investment promotion agency, have released a series of insightful reports, the Pacific Business Monitor COVID Reflections, shedding light on the ramifications of the global health crisis across various Pacific industries from 2020 to 2022. Commissioned by PTI and conducted by the independent research agency, Fifth Quadrant, these reports draw on data...