PINA

The chairmanship of the Pacific Islands Forum will be passed from Fiji to the Cook Islands at the Special Leaders Retreat in Nadi this week. Outgoing Chair Sitiveni Rabuka took up the role when he was elected as Prime Minister in December last year but will hand over that role to his Cook Islands counterpart, Mark Brown. “My tenure as chair...

Australian foreign minister Penny Wong has announced Australia will rapidly scale up security and development cooperation with the sprawling Pacific Island nation of Kiribati as the federal government tries to ensure China doesn't gain a strategic foothold in the country. The foreign minister met Kiribati's President Taneti Maamau Tuesday in the capital Tarawa on her first visit since Labor won...

Fiji and Papua New Guinea have reasserted their commitment to regional solidarity and mutual cooperation on issues of interest to both nations. This was conveyed Tuesday at a meeting held between the Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sitiveni Rabuka and the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea James Marape. Speaking at a press conference, Prime Minister Rabuka thanked Prime...

Any human rights issues in West Papua must not be overshadowed by the fact that the country remains under the sovereignty of Indonesia. These were the sentiments expressed by Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka and his Papua New Guinea counterpart James Marape at a news conference in Suva Tuesday. “West Papua has been an issue that has resurfaced many times in the...

Pacific delegates have joined the rest of the international community at what is hoped to be the finale in the negotiations of the marine biological diversity treaty at the UN Headquarters in New York, USA. Forum Secretary General and Pacific Ocean Commissioner Henry Puna is pleading with all the nations of the world to bring the high seas treaty canoe...

By Caleb Jarvis, Trade and Investment Commissioner, PTI Australia From media to development strategies, industry transformations to education, we are seeing unequivocally that the future is digital. In this instance, the Pacific Islands is no exception. In recent years the oceanic stage has been set for digital prosperity. Connectivity and technology gains have been rolled-out and adopted at accelerated rates,...

The UN Human Rights Office has launched Pacific Climate Tales – an animated video series where migrant workers from the Pacific region share their personal stories about climate change, leaving home and how it affects their human rights. As part of our yearlong count-down to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ 75 anniversary on December 10 and the #StandUp4Migrants campaign,...

Over the years, Claire Anterea has waved goodbye to numerous friends and family members as they left the Pacific island nation of Kiribati for jobs in regional powerhouse Australia. She had never considered joining them--until now. Australia will introduce a permanent residency option for Pacific islanders this year and has also expanded its short-term labor program--part of the country’s wider efforts...

Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka says Fiji will in the near-future appoint a non-resident High Commissioner to begin negotiations on the reopening of Fiji’s mission in Port Moresby. In a joint press conference with his Papua New Guinea counterpart, James Marape, Rabuka said Fiji had to close the High Commission in PNG due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Rabuka said this can only...

Pacific Islands Forum Secretary General Henry Puna has urged world leaders attending the resumed fifth-session of the Intergovernmental Conference on the Biological Diversity Beyond National Jurisdictions (BBNJ IGC-5) in New York to hold faith for a global protected ocean. Noting the negotiation process for this global ocean treaty under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) has...