PINA

Tonga’s Prime Minister and Chair of the Pacific Islands Forum, Hu'akavameiliku Siaosi Sovaleni, made a resounding call for urgent and transformative climate action during the Summit of the Future at the United Nations. Speaking on behalf of the 18 member states of the Pacific Islands Forum, Sovaleni highlighted the existential threat posed by climate change to the Pacific region and...

Samoa’s Prime Minister, Fiame Naomi Mata'afa, delivered a strong plea at the Summit of the Future, calling for urgent global action to tackle the existential threats faced by small island developing states (SIDS). Speaking on behalf of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), Mata’afa highlighted the stark reality of climate change, debt, and economic instability as key challenges that...

In a world grappling with climate change, financial instability and social inequities, Tuvalu stands at the frontline of these pressing challenges. At the Summit of the Future, Tuvalu’s Prime Minister Feleti Teo delivered a passionate plea, emphasising the existential threat climate change poses to his small Pacific atoll nation. “For Tuvalu, climate change-induced sea level rise is the greatest and most...

The President of Fiji, Ratu Wiliame Katonivere has urged world leaders to urgently reshape international cooperation amidst a series of escalating global crises. In his address at the Summit of the Future, President Katonivere highlighted the multiple challenges facing the world today, including conflicts, climate change, stalled development, and failing ecosystems, with the most vulnerable populations suffering the consequences. “The world...

As the Pacific Resilience Meeting: Managing Climate and Disaster Risk for a Resilient Pacific unfolds, leaders and stakeholders from across the region have gathered to tackle the urgent challenges posed by climate change, a daily reality for Pacific Island nations. Pacific Islands Forum Acting Secretary General, Esala Nayasi emphasised the urgency of the situation, recalling last month’s Leaders’ annual meeting...

Papua New Guinea's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Justin Tkatchenko, has laid down a bold challenge to global leaders in a powerful address ‘We do not need rhetorical statements and unmet pledges’ at the High-Level Meeting on the Summit of the Future in New York. “The lackluster progress for the Sustainable Development Goals, at just seventeen percent, seen globally, including in...

Fiji's Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka says his next trip to the United Nations General Assembly(UNGA) is when the Pacific Islands Forum adopts his ‘Ocean for Peace’ policy that was proposed at the 53rd Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting in Tonga last month. Speaking at the ‘Launch of Fiji’s Foreign Policy White Paper’ Rabuka said in his address to the UNGA Meeting...

Economic and financial constraints, followed closely by social, cultural, and political pressures, pose the greatest threats to media freedom in the Pacific, according to the inaugural Pacific Islands Media Freedom Index (PIMFI) report, For Us, By Us, About Us. Published by the Pacific Freedom Forum (PFF), a coalition of Pacific journalists formed to promote and project media freedom in the...

By Nic Maclellan  Tuesday 24 September marks the 171st anniversary of the French annexation of New Caledonia. By order of Napoleon III, Rear-Admiral Février-Despointes officially took possession of the main island Grande Terre in 1853, in a ceremony near the Catholic mission at Balade: “From this day forth, this land is French and part of its national territory.” For Kanak nationalists,...

President of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) Wesley Simina, made a powerful statement at the Summit of the Future, insisting that “the time for action is now.” His remarks came as the global community grapples with escalating climate challenges that disproportionately affect small island nations. “Climate change poses an existential threat to our environmental stability, peace, and security,” Simina declared,...