Results for Pacific Islands

Despite uncertainty about the outlook for inflation and interest rates in major economies and trading partners, developing Pacific economies are expected to grow in 2023 and 2024 due to a recovery in tourism, post-disaster rebuilding, and infrastructure construction, a World Bank report released today says. Fiji is expected to continue leading the Pacific's recovery from the pandemic. Robust growth is also projected for Palau, Samoa, Tuvalu, and Federated States of Micronesia. While in Tonga most households receive remittances from abroad.

A total of 58 seismic events were recorded within Tonga’s region, in the month of July compared to 155 seismic events in June, the Tonga Geohazards team reported today.

FIFA President Mr Gianni Infantino met Tonga's Prime Minister Hon. Hu'akavameiliku in Nuku'alofa today to discuss FIFA’s strategies in Tonga - including a new $8 million stadium project and training academies for Tongatapu and the outer islands.

On a first visit to Tonga by a US cabinet member, today, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, took a few quiet minutes to lay a wreath at the seafront Cenotaph in Nuku'alofa, before he met with the Tongan Prime Minister and other officials at St George Government Building across the road. The War Memorial honours the Tongan fallen in two World Wars. In WWII there were more American troops stationed in Tongatapu than Tongans. During the morning, Secretary Blinken spoke about US perceptions of today's superpower rivalry in Tonga and the Pacific region, when he was answering questions at a media briefing.

Monitoring of land use through Earth observations and satellite imagery data, will help governments in the Pacific Islands better manage their limited resources. Tonga is hosting the first technical workshop on “Digital Earth Pacific Land Cover Assessment Skills Transfer” (DEP LCAST), organised by the SPC, commencing today, 24 July 2023 at the Tanoa Dateline Hotel in Nuku'alofa.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken will travel to Tonga, New Zealand, and Australia, July 24-29, the State Department announced last night. Secretary Blinken is the first Secretary of State to visit Tonga, and this is his third trip to a Pacific Island country, and his 12th trip to the Indo-Pacific region. In Tonga he will dedicate the new U.S. Embassy “and advance key discussions with our Tongan partners.”

An El Niño alert for Tonga was issued by the Meteorology Department, on 14 July, as forecasts show there is a 70% chance of El Niño forming this year. The likely impacts on Tonga will include cooler nights, less rainfall over the next 6-12 months, and more tropical cyclones in the next cyclone season from 1 November 2023 to 30 April 2024.

As critical talks on deeply-contested deep-sea mining continue in Jamaica this week, scientists fear the impacts of mining the seabed on the marine environment and wider climate, says the National Geographic Society Pristine Seas programme in a statement today.

Chinese diplomats in the Pacific are critical of a decision by the Japanese government to dispose of nuclear-contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear plant accident by discharging it into the sea. They rejected the conclusions of a report of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on 4 July.