PINA

Australia's new Pacific Minister Pat Conroy said his government is keen to revamp its relationship with the Pacific, but not as a result of China's activity in the region. The new government has been criticised for a reactionary approach to Pacific foreign policy, with Minister Penny Wong visiting the region shortly after China's Foreign Minister began his tour of the...

The formal negotiations on the tuna treaty are underway says U.S Deputy Assistant Secretary, East Asian and Pacific Affairs Bureau, Mark Lambert. The treaty is viewed as a model of international and fishery cooperation. Lambert who was on a two-day tour of Fiji, said the tuna treaty represents an ongoing agreement between the United States and Pacific island countries including Fiji. He...

A Framework on the Blue Economy, touted as a way forward, by the Pacific Regional Non- Governmental Organisations Alliance (PRNGO) was launched at the Nukubuco Sand Bank during a prayer Vigil to mark the beginning of the Oceans week. The Pacific Islands Association of NGOS (PIANGO), Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG), the Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC), World Wide Fund...

Pacific leaders are aware that the region is being used as a strategic space for power-plays by powerful countries like China, Australia and the United States. The narrative amongst global leaders is that the region has nothing to gain in the process however, Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown believes regional leaders know what’s going on and are in full...

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has denied New Zealand is asleep at the wheel as China continues its push into the Pacific. New Zealand has been a significant presence in the region for years and will continue to be one, the prime minister told Breakfast on Tuesday morning. Ardern said Australia, New Zealand and Japan had the biggest aid and development spend...

The annual UN Climate Change Conference in the German city of Bonn began on Monday, designed to lay the groundwork for a successful COP27, due to take place in the Egyptian coastal resort of Sharm-el-Sheikh, in November. Governments are meeting for the first time since the conclusion of COP26 in Glasgow last November, which saw the operational details of the...

Several top Pacific Island leaders will today sit down for an extraordinary meeting that they hope will resolve the leadership crisis threatening to split the region's peak diplomatic body. The Australian government has played a crucial role in helping to facilitate the face-to-face gathering about the future of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), flying three Micronesian leaders to Suva for...

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,...