Cook Islands PM asks partners to get serious about debt and climate financing as economic ministers meet
Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown says if the region’s donor partners are serious about helping Pacific economies grow and recover, they “have to be serious about looking at changing the rules around financing,
Rabuka to visit Kiribati in a bid to heal family relations
Fiji’s Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka flies to Kiribati on Friday morning to meet with President Taneti Maamau and discuss Kiribati’s membership of the Pacific Islands Forum, amongst other issues. The visit is
Forum stabilises, but hard problems remain
It was a busy time in Suva this month, as Presidents and Prime Ministers arrived in the Fijian capital for the 51st Pacific Islands Forum. Well, most of them – the absence of key Micronesian leaders and the withdrawal
Changing prescription for regionalism
The former Secretary General (SG) of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS), Dame Meg Taylor, discussed her prescription for Forum leadership when she participated at the Blue Pacific Futures Webinar on 3 November
Climate, Covid and Co-ordination: Forum leaders hold online summit
A virtual summit of the Pacific Islands Forum will be held this Friday 6 August, after the annual face-to-face meeting of presidents and prime ministers was again disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic. After the 2020
What is to become of Pacific regionalism
In the September/October 2019 issue of this magazine, I reflected on the ‘Death of Pacific Regionalism?’ (also known as Pacific Islands Forum). It was a leading question in my mind at the time having just witnessed
Derogation of State Power to the Region Not an Option
In my last article in this magazine, I referred to the structure of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) and its system of decision-making as being antiquated. This was on the basis that PIF’s type of regionalism is
Reimagining Pacific regionalism
A rare conjunction of events is emerging. The events are both directional and prescriptive. The conjunction’s rarity is evocative. The conjunction provides an opportunity for Pacific regionalism (or the Pacific
COVID-19, geopolitics and the Pacific Way – Dame Meg Taylor on the path out of our current crisis
The Pacific today faces three crises: a health crisis, an economic crisis and the ongoing climate crisis, and Pacific Islands Forum Economic Ministers will discuss all three when they meet (virtually) next week. As the
PIF boss: Four contenders and a call to defer the vote
Tuvalu has asked Pacific Leaders to consider deferring the formal appointment of the new Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum until a face-to-face meeting next year. Islands Business is aware of four
Resetting the Pacific Blue Continent: Towards 2030
A mere decade before the Pacific Island Countries join the rest of the world to account in terms of what we have done collectively to deliver the 2030 promise and the Sustainable Development Goals, a global pandemic has
InDepth: Pacific Islands Forum Secretary General, Dame Meg Taylor
Around the region, Pacific governments are introducing border controls and health regulations to limit the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus. But regional organisations are also responding: a virtual meeting of Foreign
Pathway across the Pacific
For only the third time in the last 20 years, the Pacific Islands Forum has invoked the Biketawa Declaration to respond to the global coronavirus pandemic. Forum member governments have agreed to establish a Pacific
Region cooperating to get nationals home
Pacific Islands Forum members have heard nationals stranded in other member countries will be ‘treated fairly’ during their virtual meeting on a Pacific Humanitarian Pathway for COVID-19 this week. Tuvalu’s
PIF countries to cooperate on medical assistance, flights and shipping
Pacific Island Forum Leaders will establish a Pacific Humanitarian Pathway on COVID-19 which could see the expediting of medical assistance and customs clearance of medical supplies, and facilitating of diplomatic
A Humanitarian Corridor for the Pacific?
Reflecting the growing concern over the Coronavirus pandemic, the Chair of the Pacific Islands Forum and Tuvalu Prime Minister, Kausea Natano, invoked a few days ago the Biketawa Declaration, a security
Forum marathon reveals tensions over climate policy
By Nic Maclellan in Funafuti, Tuvalu In a marathon leaders’ retreat that continued well into the night, with often heated debate, the Pacific Islands Forum has issued a joint communique and a new declaration on
Pacific leaders want action on West Papua human rights issues
By Nic Maclellan in Funafuti, Tuvalu Members of the Pacific Islands Forum have urged Indonesia to take action on human rights violations in West Papua, and strongly encouraged Jakarta to facilitate a long-mooted visit
Pacific seeks partnerships in climate finance
By Nic Maclellan in Funafuti, Tuvalu. Most Forum island countries have already accessed funding from the Green Climate Fund (GCF), the global climate finance mechanism created under the UN Framework Convention for
Island leaders says new climate funds don’t let Australia off the hook
By Nic Maclellan in Funafuti, Tuvalu As Prime Minister Scott Morrison heads to this week’s 50th Pacific Islands Forum in Tuvalu, Australia has announced that it will commit new climate funding to the Pacific. Morrison
