PINA

Environmental concerns were high on the list of issues to be addressed at the recent three-day Pacific Islands Conference of Leaders, held in Honolulu from 12 to 14 September with Japan’s decision to release up to 1.25 million tons of water from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean one of the most pressing concerns. That is a position...

The total budget to run the upcoming Vanuatu snap election is VT150 million (US$1.2 million). Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Edward Kaltamat, confirmed this Tuesday. In addition to that, the Australian government has also stepped in to assist the Electoral Office. Kaltamat said the staff of the Vanuatu Electoral Office is working hard in preparation for the Polling day on 13 October...

Written by Dame Meg Taylor and Soli Middleby Following almost a decade of geopolitically driven “stepping up”, ‘uplifting’, ‘resetting’, and “stepping up across the board”, it appears that Western governments believe more of the same will achieve greater influence in the Pacific. Even New Zealand and Australia, who have recently sought to articulate something different, remain focused on implementing more...

Guam Governor Lou Leon Guerrero has announced that Guam would apply for membership in the Pacific Islands Forum. “The Pacific Islands Forum is seen as the united front for all the Pacific island leaders,” she said during a press conference on Monday. “It’s the forum that is in unity and will strengthen our voice in the Pacific Islands here with...

Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown had the United States Secret Service “scrambling” after travelling on a public train from New York to Washington on his recent trip. Brown was there for the first-ever United States-Pacific Island Country Summit held last week. Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration (MFAI) secretary Tepaeru Herrmann said national security provisions are in place when a...

Health and environmental problems linger on decades after the United States detonated 67 nuclear bombs in the Marshall Islands. It will be the second environment-related initiative that the small island country spearheads in its two years of membership at the Human Rights Council. After obtaining the appointment of a human rights expert on climate change in September 2021, the Marshall...

Cook Islands Prime Minister says a new partnership with the United States is compatible with its relations with China and will enhance diplomacy in the region Cook Islands is one of 14 Pacific countries that have endorsed the U.S's new Pacific partnership aimed at countering China's growing influence in the region. But Prime Minister Mark Brown said the new partnership doesn't...

When Solomon Islands foreign minister Jeremiah Manele was hosted at New Zealand Parliament for a bi-lateral meeting, he was ushered into the “rainbow room”. Same-sex sexual activity is a crime in Manele’s country, though it reportedly goes unpunished. “That was the only room available for us to be able to use,” Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta said, after their meeting. Then, in...

Non-government Organisations including the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Ocean Foundation, WWF and Global Tuna Alliance are calling on the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) members to move away from yearly quota-setting to a science-based, pre-agreed management procedure (MP) for skipjack tuna. The group made the appeal in an open letter, urging the WCPFC, particularly fisheries bloc within the...

In collaboration with the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), the United States is hosting the first-ever Clean Energy Workshop and Pacific Women in Energy Conference from October 4-6 in Suva to support the Pacific Islands’ clean energy transition and climate adaptation efforts. Led by U.S Department of State Bureau of Energy Resources Deputy Assistant Secretary (DAS) Laura Lochman, the...