PINA

Fiji has recorded 81 new cases of COVID-19 and three new deaths Wednesday, increasing the total number of cases to 50,883 and 622 deaths since the outbreak in April. Permanent secretary for Health, Dr James Fong said there have been 57 new recoveries to report since the last update, which means that there are now 12,881 active cases. “There have been...

Papua New Guinea will seek to progress a number of issues on behalf of its people and the wider Pacific Blue economy at the COP 26 next month in Glasgow. Prime Minister James Marape in his address to the 76th UN General Assembly said that it was vital for PNG and the Pacific leadership to commit to the energy targets...

Seasonal workers from Vanuatu are happy to be able to bypass managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) when the new one-way RSE travel bubble with New Zealand begins in October, Vanuatu consul-general McKenzie Kalotiti says. At Monday’s post-Cabinet press conference, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern confirmed RSE workers from Vanuatu would be able to skip MIQ from 04 October. Quarantine-free entry would be...

The Republic of Marshall Islands is part of an international task force established by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to review the safety of a planned release of water now stored at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The taskforce made up of eleven internationally recognised experts with diverse backgrounds from Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, France, the Marshall Islands,...

Statement from Dr Satyendra Prasad, Fiji Permanent Representative to the United Nations On behalf of the Pacific Islands Forum, I am honoured to deliver this statement as we commemorate and promote the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. Today, I would like to highlight progress and reiterate calls that have been made over the past years from...

Eight years ago, the United Nations General Assembly declared 26 September as the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons - but the Marshall Islands have been fighting the battle to have these monstrous weapons of war destroyed for far longer. In 1954, Marshallese leaders petitioned the United Nations to halt the testing of nuclear weapons. At that...

Fiji has reaffirmed its commitment and solidarity with the international community to support all efforts in making the world free of nuclear weapons. This was emphasised by Prime Minister, Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama in his statement today to the United Nations on the occasion of the High Level Plenary meeting to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the Total Elimination of Nuclear...

Countries in the Pacific risk a “lost decade” following the Covid pandemic, with the region facing its greatest economic contraction in four decades, according to a new report into foreign aid. The latest Lowy Institute Pacific Aid Map, which sets out aid spending and donations to the Pacific Islands region, shows US$2.44bn in foreign aid reached the Pacific in 2019,...

A Pacific government which has sought to expedite deep sea mining used its UN platform to make a pitch for an industry that is unpopular with ocean peoples. There's great interest among advocates of the fledgling sector in the polymetallic nodules found on the deepest seabed of the Pacific, but few regional countries are on board. Polymetallic nodules are lumps found...

Papua New Guinea Commissioner of Police and Controller of the PNG COVID-19 National Pandemic Response David Manning has issued a directive banning gatherings of more than 20 persons effective from tomorrow (30 September) for one month ending 30 October 2021. Manning has directed that events/gatherings, inclusive of social (clubbing/bar activities, dances, dinners, parties, sporting competitions, etc.) and religious activities (church,...