PINA

The World Bank will bolster efforts to strengthen financial management, address debt issues and empower the Solomon Islands Internal Commission Against Corruption by providing a supplemental US$15 million to existing support for these reforms. At the end of November 2021, protests and rioting in Honiara caused widespread destruction with economic damage amounting to around US$86 million or roughly 7 percent...

The U.S military will hold its first Patriot live-fire exercise in the Republic of Palau on 15 June. Air Defence Artillery Battalion based out of Okinawa will be at the Micronesian nation conducting the exercise. It’s the first of its kind to be conducted in Palau, and will be followed by another first – the republic’s inclusion in Operation Valiant...

The European Union (EU) and the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environmental Programme (SPREP) today signed the Pacific Biodiversity and Sustainable Land-Seascapes (Pacific BioScapes) Programme to assist 11 Pacific island countries manage their marine and coastal resources. The EU-funded Euro12 million (FJD$27.6 million) Pacific BioScapes Programme will contribute to the sustainable development of Pacific Small Island Developing States (SIDS) through...

A new chapter of closer intra-regional partnerships in the Pacific will help to boost Pacific States' exports to the world, as this is the first time PIFS has deployed Trade Advisers into the sub-regions of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. This has been possible through the European Union (EU) funded SPIRIT project ('Strengthening Pacific Intra-Regional and International Trade') under the Pacific...

At the invitation of the Electoral Commission of Papua New Guinea, the Commonwealth Secretariat will deploy a Commonwealth Observer Group (COG) to observe the country’s national election scheduled to begin on 2 July 2022. The Commonwealth Secretary-General, Patricia Scotland, constituted the ten-member group of observers, which will be led by the former President of Nauru, Baron Waqa. The COG will arrive...

The Papua New Guinea Government says it will keep its doors open to China for any discussion on foreign assistance in terms of security for the country. PNG’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Soroi Eoi said while the country was part of the Treaty of Rarotonga, the discussion of security was a ‘hotly debated discussion’ and there is a ‘collective agreement...

The U.S Army is planning its first Patriot missile air-defence exercise on Palau amid efforts by China to woo other Pacific island nations with offers of economic and security cooperation. Okinawa-based soldiers from 1st Battalion, 1st Air Defense Artillery Battalion are expected to fire the Patriot during a 15 June drill, Capt. Nicholas Chopp, a spokesman for the 94th Air...

U.S President Biden’s special envoy for Compact negotiations with the freely associated states Ambassador Joseph Yun is expected to head a team of Americans who will come to the Marshall Islands next week for the first in-person negotiating session with Marshall Islands authorities. The U.S delegation is scheduled to arrive 14 June at the U.S. Army Garrison-Kwajalein Atoll, which is...

The Stockholm+50 environment conference came to a close on Friday with a call for real commitments to urgently address global environmental concerns, and for a just transition to sustainable economies, that work for all. “We came to Stockholm 50 years after the UN Conference on the Human Environment knowing that something must change. Knowing that, if we do not change,...

In a historic occasion to be witnessed this week, the Governments of Cook Islands and Samoa will open their first ever diplomatic missions based in Suva, Fiji. The inaugural opening of the Cook Islands High Commission is scheduled on Monday 06 June 2022, followed by the opening of Samoa High Commission on Tuesday, 07 June 2022. At the official opening programme...