PINA

Indian President Droupadi Murmu will undertake a state visit to Fiji, New Zealand and Timor-Leste from 05-10 August 2024. This will be the first-ever visit by a Head of State from India to Fiji and Timor Leste, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in its announcement on Monday. The visit to Fiji on 5-6 August, 2024 comes at the invitation...

By Stephen Howes and Huiyuan Liu The spike in migration out of Fiji since the end of COVID has been widely commented on. It is certainly real. Prior to 2018 there were on average about 9,000 more departures than arrivals of Fijian residents every year. There were more than 25,000 in each of 2018 and 2019, then, after a COVID...

An executive order that American Samoa Governor Lemanu Peleti Mauga issued places a moratorium on seabed mining in the waters of American Samoa. The moratorium applies to the mining, extracting, or removal of minerals. The order cites that deep sea mining poses significant risks to marine biodiversity, including the potential for habitat destruction, pollution, and the disruption of critical ecological processes,...

The Pacific island nation of Kiribati is tiny, with just 120,000 residents scattered across 32 tropical atolls, but it’s playing an outsize role in an election that will determine whether companies can begin strip-mining the world’s oceans for critical metals. Leticia Carvalho, a Brazilian ocean scientist, says Kiribati’s Ambassador tried to bribe her to drop out of the race to...

The nine crossbenchers of Fiji Parliament have elected Ioane Naivalurua to be their leader in Parliament. Last Wednesday, the nine crossbenchers met after a communication was made from the Office of the Speaker. During this caucus meeting, they unanimously elected Naivalurua to lead them in Parliament. Viliame Naupoto will be their Whip, and Alipate Nagata deputy Whip. The members have also requested the...

New Caledonia's mothballed nickel plant in Koniambo (North of the main island) has announced it has engaged in the mass sackings of some 1200 staff, despite efforts to identify a potential buyer. Koniambo (KNS - Koniambo Nickel SAS) operations had already been mothballed and put into sleep mode after the announcement, in February, from its major financier, Anglo-Swiss giant Glencore,...

Mavis Podokolo, a young female editor of the Island Sun Newspaper, has emerged as a trailblazer in the Solomon Islands’ media industry. From humble beginnings inspired by radio announcers to becoming the Editor of the Year, demonstrates perseverance, passion, and hard work. Mavis Podokolo hails from the Western Province and began her journalism journey at the Solomon Islands National University...

World Rugby needs to recalibrate its international calendar to enable more players like Antoine Dupont to switch between sevens and 15s, according to the federation's CEO, Alan Gilpin. Dupont played a starring role, scoring two second-half tries and setting up another, as France claimed its first gold of the Paris Games by beating two-time defending champions Fiji in Saturday's final. In...

Members of the Fiji 7s Men’s team are set to receive $20,000(US$10,000) each from the Coalition Government after winning a silver medal at the Paris Olympics. This will be based on the incentive programme approved and announced by Government in June. Under the incentive programme for the 2024 Paris Olympics, gold medalists would receive $50,000(US$25,000), silver medalists $20,000(US$10,000) and bronze medalists...

As part of the Forum Economic Ministers Meeting week, Forum members are gathering today for a series of Talanoa discussions to review updates on key agenda topics to be presented by Ministers later this week. This morning's discussions focused on the final draft of the Pacific Roadmap for Economic Development (PRED), a strategic plan designed to harness the economic potential...