PINA

A White House envoy on Tuesday decried “disinformation and smears” about the United States' motives in the Solomon Islands, after his meeting with the country's pro-China leader was overshadowed by unsubstantiated rumors of dark plots and geopolitical intrigue. Veteran U.S diplomat Kurt Campbell visited the Solomons' capital Honiara as part of Washington's effort to counter growing Chinese political, economic and...

Indigenous activists have made clear that they don’t give their consent to deep sea mining. In a petition presented Monday to the International Seabed Authority (ISA), over 1,000 signatories from 34 countries and 56 Indigenous groups called for a total ban on this destructive industry. Addressing the delegates of the ISA, Hawaiian Indigenous speaker and activist Solomon Kaho’ohalahala, offered the delegates...

The Synthesis of the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Cycle confirms life-threatening risks to small island developing States, and challenges to sustainable development, if warming is not limited to 1.5°C. The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world’s foremost climate science body convened by the United Nations, has released the Synthesis Report of its 6th Assessment Cycle in which it reveals...

Dozens of athletes from the Solomon Islands will train in China for three months to sharpen their competitiveness for the Pacific Games in November, underlining the intention of both countries to make the sporting event a showcase of Chinese-Pacific cooperation. China is covering more than half the cost of the quadrennial games that will be staged in the Solomon Islands...

Solomon Islands will host the region’s biggest ever sporting event, the 17th edition of the Pacific Games in Honiara this year (2023). The Pacific Games (formerly known as the South Pacific Games or SPG) was established in the 1960s by the then South Pacific Games Council (now the Pacific Games Council) with the vision to promote a unique, friendly world-class...

Australia and New Zealand should make good on their rhetoric of being part of a “Pacific family” by creating a European Union-style common market in which people could move and work freely across the region, Samoan Prime Minister Fiamē Naomi Mata’afa says. Mata’afa, who will meet with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Canberra on Wednesday, acknowledged her idea was “very...

After losing his bid for another term, Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) President David Panuelo has begun preparing for the leadership turnover to his successor, who will be elected by the 23rd FSM Congress on 11 May. Based on unofficial results of the 07 March elections, four at-large senators from all four states are listed as eligible candidates for the...

In the wake of the latest warning from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the Pacific island nation renews calls for a global phaseout of fossil fuels. By Ralph Regenvanu Vanuatu is on a permanent war footing due to the climate crisis. It is a country on edge. As I walk through the streets of our capital city, Port Vila,...

Papua New Guinea’s Minister for Fisheries and Marine Resources Jelta Wong has asked all Pacific Forum Leaders of the Pacific Island Forum (PIF) to unite to form a stronger position against Japan’s plan to proceed with the dumping of nuclear wastewater into the Pacific Ocean. “I make this appeal to the PIF Secretary General Henry Puna to immediately convene an...

Samoan Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa has criticised the United State for changing its strategic language around the Pacific without consulting the region, adding the growing competition between the Chinese and American governments was “an opportunity not to be missed.” Speaking in Canberra on Monday, Mata’afa said there had been new “narrative” created by the U.S and its diplomatic partners...