PINA

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape is expected to have bilateral talks focusing on trade and regional security with his Fijian counterpart Sitiveni Rabuka on 19 May in Port Moresby. Marape, who was in Fiji in February, then invited Rabuka to visit Papua New Guinea to follow up on their discussions in Suva. Marape, Rabuka and other Pacific Island Forum...

The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions will not lay charges against Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka and former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama for allegedly urging political violence and urging communal antagonism. The two cases were among a list of other high profile cases which the DPP’s office confirmed would not lay any charges. In a statement today, acting Director...

On his way to be crowned this week, King Charles III will travel by gilded coach through streets swathed in red, white and blue Union flags — and past a warning from history. At Trafalgar Square stands a large bronze statue of King Charles I, the 17th-century monarch deposed by Parliament and executed in 1649. On Saturday, more than 1,500...

An empowered Niue is working to grow its presence at the UN Climate Change Conference. Niue is the world’s 177th largest emitter with a total share of zero greenhouse gas emissions, yet like all Pacific Islands nations, Niue is amongst the most vulnerable in the world to the impacts of climate change. In 2022, Niue led a delegation of seven at...

Anxieties are growing in Canberra that a landmark security agreement between Australia and Vanuatu could stall in the Pacific nation's parliament, with Prime Minister Ishmael Kalsakau facing increasing political blowback after signing the pact last year. Foreign Minister Penny Wong surprised many observers and foreign diplomats when she and Kalsakau inked the security pact during a bipartisan visit to Vanuatu...

O'Love, or Veve, Jacobsen has been winning elections in Niue for the past 35 years, apart from a spell when she was the country's high commissioner to New Zealand. She came fifth of the six successful candidates on the common roll at the weekend, in an election that brings a lot of new MPs, including six women, into parliament. Speaking with...

Republicanism was seen as a move against Queen Elizabeth II during her reign. Now the Commonwealth is at a crossroads. By Craig Prescott, Bangor University With the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the glue that bound 56 disparate nations is gone. The future for the British Commonwealth is less certain under Charles III. The Commonwealth faces two main questions: the constitutional...

A wide-ranging Pacific assistance package covering environmental, military, and economic support for Australia's closest neighbours will be unveiled in Tuesday's budget, as the Albanese government moves to reassert influence and push back on China's growing ambitions in the region. The ABC has confirmed the additional “whole of government” funding, which is likely to involve the deployment of more Australian military...

The United States says it will open a new Embassy in Tonga this month as Washington steps up its diplomatic presence in the Pacific to counter China. Daniel Kritenbrink, the top U.S diplomat for Asia-Pacific, said officials would also engage with Vanuatu and Kiribati about opening new embassies there. In a statement, Kritenbrink said the U.S State Department has been in...

The Chinese Embassy has called on Fiji to uphold the one-China principle, stating that the Taiwan question is a matter of China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. This follows reports that China’s Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ma Zhaoxu, was supposed to deliver a message to Prime Minister Rabuka regarding “treading carefully on Taiwan”. However, the Embassy did not confirm these reports...