Results for Pacific Islands

The Prime Minister Lord Fakafanua joins Pacific leaders at Samoa's 64th Independence Day celebrations this week at the Malae o Ti'afau in Mulinuʻu in Samoa. The Royal Tonga Police Band is performing at the event.

Australia and the Pacific Island's vulnerability to attacks on subsea internet cables, has been underlined by the Australian deputy prime minister at an Asian security summit. - AAP

Pacific youth are being invited to help shape the region’s climate agenda ahead of the COP31 in Türkiye, through a series of talanoa dialogues commencing in Suva, Fiji, on 2 June.

Pacific Island countries have demonstrated the power of regional cooperation in protecting the region's valuable fisheries resources following the successful completion of Operation Tui Moana 2026 (OPTM26), a three-week coordinated fisheries surveillance operation spanning vast areas of the Pacific Ocean.

The growing threat of illicit drugs in the Pacific has gathered policing leaders in Fiji in an unprecedented “Pacific Transnational Crime Summit” to address the drugs crisis in the Pacific. It comes as 17 tonnes of illicit drugs, mostly cocaine, has been seized by local and international law enforcement in the Pacific region since January.

The surge in the trafficking, availability and use of methamphetamine across Pacific Island countries is explosive, fuelling an escalating epidemic of HIV, and undermining human, national and regional security, says a new paper from the Pacific Security College released today. The paper proposes a cross-sector regional summit in 2027 to shape coordinated responses to the escalating methamphetamine crisis across the Pacific.

For farmer Nafetalai Makaui from Houma, improvements to Tonga’s watermelon export pathway have translated into practical changes on the ground. Working with Nishi Trading under a PHAMA Plus-supported fertigation pilot, he increased production on a one-acre plot from 8 tonnes to 21 tonnes, enough to fill a 20-foot shipping container. “The watermelons are sweeter now because we’re keeping the soil consistently moist,” Makaui said. “Before, we relied on rain, and it just wasn’t consistent enough.”

Doctoral candidate Dougie ‘Atiola’s journey into biomedical research at the University of Auckland began as a patient in a hospital ward in Tonga.

To address emerging regional challenges like oil supply issues and matters regarding peace, Pacific Islands Forum Troika leaders met in Fiji this week, discussing challenges and reinforcing the importance of unity, strong leadership, and collective action for navigating the Pacific's future, in an increasingly uncertain global landscape.