PINA

By Kate Clayton Henrietta McNeill Last week, immediately following the conclusion of the U.S-Pacific Summit, Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Secretary General Henry Puna tweeted a photo of himself and Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama wearing Aviator style sunglasses. Puna captioned the image, “A strong commitment is forged. In honour of this historic inaugural US-Pacific Summit, we decided to wear...

Titans forward David Fifita is expected to pull on a Tonga jersey for the first time in next weekend's World Cup warm-up match against France after arriving in England with the Pacific nation's squad. Fifita is one of 21 NRL stars in the 24-man Mate Ma'a Tonga squad, which includes NSW Origin representatives Daniel Tupou and Siosifa Talakai, as well...

-Prolific South Sydney try scorer Alex Johnston and Melbourne backs Justin Olam and Xavier Coates headline an experienced Papua New Guinea squad for upcoming World Cup. Johnston, the back-to-back Ken Irvine Medallist as the NRL's leading tryscorer, and Olam and Coates will be joined by a host of familiar faces, including Rhyse Martin, Lachlan Lam, Nene Macdonald, Watson Boas and...

The 12 competing teams, match officials and the global rugby family were officially welcomed to Rugby World Cup 2021 in New Zealand on Monday in a ceremony hosted at SkyCity Theatre in Auckland. Dame Cindy Kiro, Governor-General of New Zealand, officially welcomed the tournament participants to Auckland, with just five days to go until the long awaited and highly anticipated...

Oceania Rugby was joined by its 17 member unions to celebrate its third women in rugby month in September. The regional body held a month of events, themed ‘Right Here, Right Now!’ to showcase and celebrate the events and people driving female development in rugby throughout Oceania in the lead up to Rugby World Cup 2021. Oceania Rugby Right Here, Right...

The Oceania National Olympic Committees (ONOC) is hosting its second Oceania Sport Education Programme (OSEP) Micro-Qualifications Stakeholder Endorsement Meeting from 03 to 6 October in Nadi, Fiji. Experts and key Pacific sport industry stakeholders will review and endorse three OSEP micro-qualifications as part of ONOC’s accreditation process of all courses under its flagship sport education programme. The need for accreditation of...

Solomon Islands has appealed to its neighbours to give it a break, repeatedly giving reassurance that its security agreement with China was a harmless deal. The leaked draft of the agreement sets out a broad framework covering Chinese “police, armed police, military personnel and other law enforcement and armed forces” deployments to the Solomon Islands. Manasseh Sogavare, the Solomons’ prime minister,...

Bougainville’s push for independence has hit a constitutional snag with top legal advisors telling the National Government that nothing can usurp the power and authority of the Constitution. The PNG Government’s paper delivered in Australia last week further detailed based on legal advice that this could not be allowed and that it would be unconstitutional. This would disappoint the ABG and...

Defence ministers of the United States, Australia and Japan have agreed to boost military cooperation to counter Chinese influence across the Asia-Pacific. As he welcomed his counterparts to the U.S military headquarters for the Pacific region in Hawaii, Lloyd Austin, the U.S defence secretary, said: “We are deeply concerned by China's increasingly aggressive and bullying behaviour in the Taiwan Strait,...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a US$30 million grant to boost regional connectivity of Tuvalu’s outer islands. The grant agreement was signed today at ADB’s Pacific Subregional Office in Suva by Tuvalu’s Minister of Finance Seve Paeniu and ADB’s Pacific Subregional Office Regional Director Aaron Batten. “By replacing Tuvalu’s existing passenger and cargo domestic ship with a safer, more...