The Pacific Islands Forum’s new Secretary General, Baron Waqa (Nauru), arrived in Tonga this afternoon, ahead of the 53^rd Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting, which opens in Nuku’alofa on Monday 26 August.

Meeting Pacific Islands journalists informally tonight, he said the time has come for climate action at this meeting, that brings together leaders from 18 members from across the Pacific Ocean. Pacific climate resilience and mitigation loom large in his thinking, as it does for those leaders who are committed to a 2050 strategy for the Pacific, to move beyond policy deliberation to implementation – to achieve transformation by “building better now”. Essentially, this is the theme for the conference.

But leaders recognize that these issues come on top of many other difficult development issues that Pacific communities need to fund, including health and education and other urgent needs, SG Waqa said.

Founded in 1971, the Pacific Islands Forum is the region's top political and economic organisation. Leaders meet annually to develop collective responses to regional issues. The SG acts as Secretary to the Pacific Islands Forum and is responsible for the management of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat.

Today, soon after landing, Secretary General Waqa and Prime Minister Hon. Hu’akavameiliku, host and chair of the 53^rd leaders meeting, visited the new accommodation centre that has been built on rapidly-reclaimed swampland at Popua. Named “Niu Lodge”, the cluster of container housing units will be home for many of the estimated 1000 visitors arriving in Nuku’alofa for the four-day meeting that runs to 30 August. The Secretary General and the Prime Minister met Tongan and Pacific Islands news journalists there, at a reception hosted by the PIF secretariat.

SG Waqa said he had visited the site only a couple of months ago when the landfill work was just starting and, he admitted, he wondered if the accommodation would be finished in time, but Tonga’s PM had assured him it would be finished. “A great job has been done,” said Waqa.

Hon. Hu’akavameiliku said to accommodate the meeting, the Tonga government had a choice of bringing in a cruise ship or building housing. “A cruise ship would take all the money we had for hosting, but by doing this [housing], after the meeting we will still have this facility for the Tonga Tourism Sector to develop.”

Mangroves

The area the PM is talking about is an exposed reef area, much of which was under water when the British explorer Capt Cook anchored off this peninsula in the late 18th century.

To reach the centre, we had to drive along a new road that has been built through a fairly recent Tongan settlement in the mangroves, where the capital’s expanding population is building homes that are, clearly, highly vulnerable to the effects of sea level rise and climate change. This fact will not be lost on the delegates who will stay in this exposed area for a week.

Our first task, on arriving at the windward side of the Niu Lodge restaurant, was to help move the tables from the verandah, around to the sheltered side of the building, to escape strong winds sweeping in from the Pacific, over the land that is barely above sea-level.

The conversation was about resilience and what it means.

We all know that resilience against the weather means changing, and doing it now. And, inevitably, it means being defensive and moving. Moving for safety and taking steps for change.

Baron Waqa (65) is a staunch advocate for climate action, recognizing the existential threat that climate change poses to Pacific Island countries. He is committed to working with member states to implement effective climate strategies, enhance disaster resilience, and secure climate financing. Leaders are looking for partners to invest in their 2050 strategy [2].

Hon. Hu’akavameiliku said that in recent years the leaders had decided to establish a regional fund so it could be “be tailored more to our needs,” and to mobilize the concept of a Blue Pacific Continent.

“I think we played a very key role in actually getting the message out to those who may want to help, especially with resilience, with the Pacific Resilience Facility [3] and mitigation.”

The reframed and re-designed PRF was endorsed by Forum Economic Ministers Meeting in August 2023.

Media training

The Prime Minister welcomed a group of young Pacific Islands journalists who have been attending a Pacific Islands Forum training workshop in Nuku’alofa this week, sponsored by PIF, PINA (PacMAS, UNODC and SP. They are among the first of about 80 media professionals expected to arrive in Tonga over the next few days. 

“It is great to actually meet some of you without fielding questions and a sense of respect that we give to journalists, the fact that they go out of their way to find information and to find the facts to inform their listeners or their viewers about noteworthy events and issues,” Hon. Hu’akavameiliku told the journalists.

“The fact is we need you and you need us. You need us for information, but we also need you to actually disseminate the information out about some of those key issues and we look forward to engaging with you in the next couple of days.”

The PIF Secretariat congratulated the five senior Tongan journalists present on their collective media experience of “over 100 years”. (For the record it's 229 years, when we counted: Pesi Fonua 57 years, since 1967; Mary Lyn Fonua 54 years since 1970; George Lavaka 48 years since 1976; Katalina Tohi 38 years since 1986; Filo ‘Akau’ola 32 years since 1992.)

High level delegates started arriving in Tonga this week with more arriving Friday and Saturday. The UN Secretary General Guterres and the Commonwealth Secretary General are expected to attend.