PINA

A Micronesian head of the Pacific's regional political body says regional stability and security, and the China Economic and Security Deal will be on the agenda on Tuesday when some Pacific leaders meet in Suva, Fiji. Several Pacific Island heads of state including at least three from the Micronesian states have arrived in Fiji for two days of meetings called...

The establishment of Cook Islands High Commission in Suva, symbolises a landmark achievement in the 24 years of diplomatic relations between Fiji and the Cook Islands. The first ever diplomatic mission of Cook Islands in Fiji, was officially opened Monday by the Prime Minister, Voreqe Bainimarama and his counterpart, Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown. Speaking at the occasion, Prime Minister...

Opinion- The Pacific people are people of the moana. Our Ocean is part of us as much as we are part of the vast moana Pasifika and its awesome surrounding writes Sefanaia Nawadra, Director-General of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) In Samoa where I am based and in all our island Member states when I visited,...

A legal challenge aimed to annul the result of last December's referendum on New Caledonia's independence from France has failed. The highest administrative court in Paris rejected a claim by the Kanak customary Senate that the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic was such that the referendum outcome was illegitimate. More than 96 percent voted against independence in the third and last...

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...