PINA

Solomon Islands has appealed to its neighbours to give it a break, repeatedly giving reassurance that its security agreement with China was a harmless deal. The leaked draft of the agreement sets out a broad framework covering Chinese “police, armed police, military personnel and other law enforcement and armed forces” deployments to the Solomon Islands. Manasseh Sogavare, the Solomons’ prime minister,...

Bougainville’s push for independence has hit a constitutional snag with top legal advisors telling the National Government that nothing can usurp the power and authority of the Constitution. The PNG Government’s paper delivered in Australia last week further detailed based on legal advice that this could not be allowed and that it would be unconstitutional. This would disappoint the ABG and...

Defence ministers of the United States, Australia and Japan have agreed to boost military cooperation to counter Chinese influence across the Asia-Pacific. As he welcomed his counterparts to the U.S military headquarters for the Pacific region in Hawaii, Lloyd Austin, the U.S defence secretary, said: “We are deeply concerned by China's increasingly aggressive and bullying behaviour in the Taiwan Strait,...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a US$30 million grant to boost regional connectivity of Tuvalu’s outer islands. The grant agreement was signed today at ADB’s Pacific Subregional Office in Suva by Tuvalu’s Minister of Finance Seve Paeniu and ADB’s Pacific Subregional Office Regional Director Aaron Batten. “By replacing Tuvalu’s existing passenger and cargo domestic ship with a safer, more...

Nauru Airlines is expected this month to resume air service linking Brisbane with islands in the central and north Pacific halted two-and-a-half-years ago due to Covid border closures in the region. Nauru Airlines was the successful bidder for an Australian-government programme that will subsidise the service as it re-launches. Australian Ambassador to the Marshall Islands Brek Batley said that Nauru Airlines...

Almost all the world’s governments have failed to improve their climate plans this year, breaking a promise made at last year’s climate summit in Glasgow, UK. At Cop26, all countries agreed to “revisit and strengthen” their 2030 climate plans, to close the gap between national action and the temperature goals of the Paris Agreement. 23 September was the cut-off date for...

When and if an island nation fully submerges due to rising seas, what happens to the nationalities of its citizens? This and other related questions are being considered by island nations advocating for changes to international law as climate change threatens their existence. “Climate change induced sea level rise is a defining issue for many Pacific Island states and like most...

The United States has conceded it let its relationship with Pacific Island nations “drift” before reaching an historic new partnership agreement with the region. U.S President Joe Biden hosted a dozen Pacific Island leaders in Washington amid increasing U.S concern about China's growing influence. The U.S secured the support of all of those attending for a joint declaration, setting out 11...

China has told the United States to stop engaging in “geopolitical jostling” after Washington announced an enhanced partnership with Pacific island nations. President Joe Biden last week hosted the inaugural U.S-Pacific Island Country Summit “a worsening climate crisis and an increasingly complex geopolitical environment”. Biden also signed the U.S-Pacific Partnership alongside the leaders of Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji,...

U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken has met with the Marshall Islands President David Kabua, the Federated States of Micronesia President David Panuelo, and Palau President Surangel Whipps, Jr, in Washington DC. The Secretary underscored the enduring nature of the relationship between the United States and the three countries, collectively known as the Freely Associated States (FAS), along with the...