PINA

Vanuatu is currently testing a ground-breaking application that looks to provide a solution to data collection challenges faced by Pacific Island countries, particularly on species and how they interact with climate and act as traditional knowledge indicators for climate. The Pacific Island nation is comprised of 80 islands stretched out over 1,300 kilometres across the central Pacific ocean. Travel to...

Foreign Minister Penny Wong is set to continue Australia's Pacific blitz with a visit to New Caledonia and Tuvalu. The visit to the two nations this week means Senator Wong will have visited all members of the Pacific Islands Forum. “Our work had to start in the Pacific because the Pacific is family,” she told the National Press Club in reference...

Just over $20 million (US$12.37 million) will go towards projects in the Solomon Islands that will help tackle climate change, support local youth and improve facilities for the upcoming Pacific Games. Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni is leading a Pacific Mission in the region this week; visiting the Solomon Islands, Fiji and Tonga in the first mission of its kind...

Decisive Government action will be critical to bringing Fiji's debt back to pre-pandemic levels, a new World Bank report has found. The global COVID-19 pandemic, multiple severe tropical cyclones, and Russia's invasion of Ukraine had resulted in an economic crisis of unprecedented scale in Fiji, with debt reaching 90 percent of GDP in 2022, exacerbating the lower economic growth trends...

Australia has topped up its aid contribution to Vanuatu’s government, with another $8 million (US$5.36 million) to help the Pacific Islands neighbour respond to two devastating tropical cyclones. The aid boost brings Australia’s total humanitarian response package to the nation to AUD$12.5 million (US$8.37 billion). Pat Conroy, Australia’s minister for international development and the Pacific, made the funding announcement while visiting...

By Patrick Kaiku Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare recently affirmed his country’s adherence to the “friend to all, enemy to none” foreign policy ideal. He, like other Melanesian leaders, in aligning their interests within the great power competition between the United States and China, will walk a fine line – not wanting to be seen favouring one over...

French Polynesia's pro-independence Tavini Huiraatira party has come out on top in the first round of the territorial elections. The party, led by Oscar Temaru, won almost 35 percent of the votes, beating the ruling Tapura Huiraatira party of Edouard Fritch, which obtained 30 percent. The recently formed A Here Ia Porinetia was the only other party to clear the 12.5...

There’s growing concern from Pacific leaders over a nuclear submarine agreement between Australia, the UK and U.S to counter China’s growing presence in the region. Several island nations feel like there’s a lack of consultation on geopolitical deals in their own region. Professor Steven Ratuva from Canterbury University says AUKUS Is being seen as an “Anglo Fear Alliance” and the Pacific...

Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare Monday received a courtesy visit from the New Zealand deputy Prime Minister and Associate Minister for Foreign Affairs, Carmel Sepuloni. In the brief courtesy call, Prime Minister Sogavare acknowledged the deep and meaningful relationship between Solomon Islands and New Zealand which dated way back to before the country’s independence in 1978. PM Sogavare assured the...

A senior New Caledonian politician has ruled out any further cooperation with the president of the French National Assembly Yael Braun-Pivet on the question of New Caledonia's future. Nicolas Metzdorf, who holds one of New Caledonia's two Assembly seats in Paris, was reacting after being asked not to attend a reception last week held for New Caledonia's pro-independence delegates. Metzdorf, who...