Page 30 - Islands Business June 2023

Opinion Opinion

FIPIC REAFFIRMS SILVER LINING

By Kaliopate Tavola Architecture’ in ‘The New Pacific Diplomacy’, 2015, edited by
Greg Fry and Sandra Tarte.
The Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC) held With climate change as the region’s existential threat, and
its third summit in May in Port Moresby, after a postponement. given the disunity in climate change policies, particularly with
Papua New Guinea’s Post Courier highlighted the meeting by Australia, PICs have had to consider an only-PICs forum to
reporting that the Secretary-General of the Pacific Islands promote climate change globally on a more effective basis.
Forum Secretariat (PIFS), Henry Puna, had written to summit Former Prime Minister Sopoaga of Tuvalu had thus suggested
co-host and PNG Prime Minister, James Marape on behalf of the idea of an ‘United States of the Pacific’.
the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) over the exclusion of PIFS and This idea was not rejected when discussed by PIF Lead-
other PIF members from the meeting. Only 14 Pacific Islands ers (PIFL) meeting in 2019. PIFL “welcomed the offer by the
Countries (PICs) were invited to FIPIC. Prime Minister of Tuvalu to commence dialogue with Leaders
It created a similar situation to that highlighted in my IB on a new 2050 vision for Pacific Island countries that recog-
article of October 2022: ‘Declaration on U.S.-Pacific Partner- nised the Blue Pacific Continent that make up the territories
ship Abrogates Established Order’. As it happened, only 14 and economic exclusive zones of the region and how Pacific
PICs did sign the Declaration with the US. Kiribati and Niue did Island countries can form an effective union, building on the
not sign due to their absence from the meeting; the reasons SAMOA Pathway and the Boe Declaration, to ensure a safe and
for which were considered legitimate by Washington. Australia secure future for the Pacific in the face of climate change.”
and New Zealand were not invited. This PIFL’s 2019 resolution, interestingly, reflected the
While those who may have thought that the profile of par- configuration of the South Pacific Forum when it started in
ticipants in these meetings was an abrogation would certainly 1971. That first meeting was held in two caucuses – the five
be justified in doing so. However, in that October 2022 article, PICs comprising one caucus and Australia and New Zealand the
I had also flown a kite in that such an abrogation might rep- other. Each caucus met separately at first and then they came
resent a silver lining - “by giving precedence to a PICs-only together for a joint meeting. In the next SPF meeting in 1972,
forum whose fullest expression may have finally come”. the Leaders agreed to do away with this divided meeting ap-
In retrospect, events over the years have somewhat sub- proach. Australia orchestrated such a reconfiguration.
stantiated such a ‘silver lining’. FIPIC’s Port Moresby Summit, The concept of a PICs-only forum that came to the fore in
for example, was its third. The first was held in 2014, and only 1971 had a thought-provoking earlier genesis. It was borne
unforeseen annual hitches have prevented such Summits from out of a rebellion – the Lae Rebellion in 1965. The five PICs,
taking place annually. only one of which was independent at the time, but were all
The Republic of Korea, after 27 years of being a PIFS invited to participate in meetings of the then South Pacific
Dialogue Partner has also hosted its first ROK-Pacific Islands Commission (SPC) established in 1948 under the Canberra
Summit this year. Agreement. The metropolitan powers comprising the SPC
The annual Japan-Pacific Islands Leaders Meetings (PALM) banned the PICs from raising any political issues in their meet-
started in 1997 with only PICs leaders. The meetings now ings.
include Australia and New Zealand. The PICs thus rebelled. But it took them six years to form
There may be other external development partners who their own forum, to which they then invited NZ to join.
may be considering conducting their own cooperation summits Australia asked subsequently to also join. They all had their
directly with PICs. first meeting in Wellington, NZ, on 5-7 August 1971 under the
It should be noted that PICs have not only talked about this banner of the South Pacific Forum (SPF).
idea but have acted on it. At the UN level, Pacific Small Island It can be seen therefore that an all-PICs forum was instru-
Developing States (PSIDS) is a recognised grouping that is do- mental in the creation of the SPF. This grew into the Pacific
ing great work as part of the Alliance of Small Island States. Islands Forum (PIF) in 2000, in line with its decision in Palau
In 2015, as part of a consultancy, I wrote a report: ‘Recon- in 1999 to change its name as a result of its expanding PICs
figuration of Pacific Regional Architecture’, where I amplified membership.
the idea of a PICs-only forum that is structurally linked to The idea of ‘silver lining’ projected in this article continues
Australia and New Zealand to form the architecture of Pacific to appeal to regional pundits. Fiji’s all-PICs forum: Pacific
regionalism (the Forum). The proposed architecture also pro- Islands Development Forum (PIDF), that has membership
vides structural formats whereby other external development beyond states to include Civil Society Organizations and the
partners may participate in any cooperation arrangement with private sector, is undergoing review. The idea of strengthen-
the Forum members on a collective basis. ing PIDF’s role in climate change and geopolitics – two critical
Later, I presented the idea at a University of the South issues for PICs, is being strongly promoted. The idea of PIDF
Pacific (USP) workshop. The idea then developed and was pub- evolving into a think tank for these two issues is being criti-
lished under the chapter: ‘Towards a New Regional Diplomacy cally assessed. With strategic design, such a think tank could

30 Islands Business, June 2023