PINA

Dual Olympic Gold medalist Jerry Tuwai, burly forward Paula Nayacakalou and halfback Filipe Sauturaga are back to boost Fiji’s campaign in Toulouse and London 7s this month. Sauturaga is back into the fold after missing the World Rugby Sevens Series legs since January. The hard-hitting utility back was ruled out for three months after sustaining an injury in Hamilton 7s. Nayacakalou replaces...

The people of the Marshall Islands have been celebrated in a special anniversary event at the Forum Secretariat Monday. Opening the 44th anniversary of the 01 May independence of the Marshall islands from the USA, the Forum Secretary General Henry Puna began by congratulating the recent appointment of Junior Aini, Ambassador of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, to Suva...

United States President Joe Biden will visit Papua New Guinea on 22 May, says Prime Minister James Marape. Biden will have a meeting with Marape during his three-hour stop-over in Port Moresby. Marape did not say what issues they would discuss. Marape said Biden would also meet the 18 leaders of the Pacific Island Forum who will be in Port Moresby on...

A team of 20 American nationals is currently in Port Vila, Vanuatu’s capital, on a mission to identify a site where the American Embassy can be erected. This move is part of the U.S’ promise to have more diplomatic engagement with Vanuatu, approved by the White House and Congress during the meeting between the President of the United States and...

Vidhya Lakhan, President of the Pacific Games Council, says he has confidence that Palau can successfully host the 2025 Pacific Mini-Games From 29 June to 09 July 2025, about 1,200 athletes from 24 Pacific member countries will be in Palau for the 2025 Pacific Mini-Games. “We are very appreciative of the level of support from everyone, from the top down, which...

Voting has started in French Polynesia in the second round to elect a new territorial assembly for a five-year term. About 200,000 voters can choose among three lists of candidates vying for the assembly's 57 seats. The lists of the pro-independence Tavini Huiraatira, which won the first round two weeks ago, and of the autonomist A Here Ia Porinetia are unchanged. For...

China was surprised when the new Fijian government scrapped the deal between the Chinese police and their own police force. Chinese Government Special Envoy for Pacific Island Countries Qian Bo told the Samoa Observer that the decision was perplexing as the relationship between the two nations had been good. He also made his disappointment known about the Fijian Government’s further action...

ABC International Development (ABCID) has announced the the successful participants for the upcoming 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup Commentary and Mobile Journalism Training programme from around Oceania. ABC International Development (ABCID) is the international development branch of Australia's national public broadcaster, the Australia Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). ABCID supports, connects, and empowers people in the Asia-Pacific region, and globally, to have a...

United States President Joe Biden will meet 18 leaders from the South Pacific when he visits Papua New Guinea in May, a top regional diplomat said on Saturday, as the U.S and China vie for influence in the region. After the end of World War II, the South Pacific was seen as a relative diplomatic backwater, but it is increasingly...

Pacific leaders are watching closely the debate in the United States Congress over foreign aid, hoping the Republicans will approve President Joe Biden’s economic assistance package to the island nations. In September last year, Biden hosted more than a dozen Pacific leaders and envoys at the White House, and announced the Pacific Partnership Strategy – worth US$800 million– to help...