Opinion: Kikibakiki – Reflections on PNG at 48
We sat down in the forever blackout Port Moresby city, I hear the neighbours playing the famous Saugas song, Sindaun Bagarap, echoing the windy night, and buai buyers complaining about the hike in the prices,
Opinion: 29 years of independence: Palau at a crossroads
Every year on the first of October, the U.S government marks the beginning of a new fiscal year, and so does the Palau government. But what appears to be a lost detail, yet historically significant, event marks the
Opinion: Government shutdown threatens key U.S. effort to counter China in Pacific
A looming government shutdown threatens to upend a major multibillion-dollar diplomatic initiative between the United States and three Pacific Island nations that the Biden administration views as a cornerstone of its
Opinion: U.S. under pressure to conclude compact agreements in the North Pacific
Little information has emerged about how negotiations for the renewal of the Compact of Free Association (COFA) between the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) and the United States are progressing. The United States
Opinion: U.S. claims to Central Pacific flout International law
In defiance of international norms and rules, U.S. officials are laying claim to the large oceanic area in the central Pacific Ocean that is home to the compact states. Now that they are renewing the economic provisions
“Consensus Is the DNA of the Pacific Region”- Dr Prasad
On 18 – 19 September, former Fijian Ambassador to the UN and Carnegie nonresident senior fellow Satyendra Prasad will be joining the Indo-Pacific Islands Dialogue in New York. Dr Satyendra Prasad is a
Opinion: Seabed mining rules lapse is window for Pacific regulations
In late July, after weeks of fierce debate at the International Seabed Authority (ISA) meeting in Jamaica, deep-sea mining proponents failed to get an agreement for the immediate licensing of deep sea mining operations.
A ‘new’ development policy? Or did Australia just miss its moment?
A new development policy for Australia presented an opportunity to reinvigorate a program that has lost its way amid the ambivalence, and occasional outright hostility, shown towards aid by successive conservative
Opinion: ‘Strategic Manipulation’
Was it a faux pas? Pacific Islands Forum Secretary General, Henry Puna has referred to the United States’ return to the region after 10 years of neglect with “the proliferation of regional strategies and
Opinion: Pacific labour mobility over the last year: continued growth
Following the reopening of borders across the Pacific region in mid-2022 in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a quick recovery in temporary labour migration flows to Australia and New Zealand. A
Opinion: The costs of logging in Solomon Islands
In the years following the 1998-2003 ethnic tensions in Solomon Islands, the World Bank assisted the Solomon Islands government in planning a project to support rural communities. This resulted in the Rural Development
