Results for Australia

Solar power for around 197 households on the small island of ‘Uiha in the Ha’apai Group, was tested this week marking an important transition from diesel to solar power generation, ahead of commissioning at the end of the month. The island's two villages, which had only six hours of electricity a day, now enjoy 24 hours a day of 100% renewable power.

While the government is aiming to improve the growth of electronic commerce, to enable more people in Tonga to fully utilize the ICT infrastructure and skills already in place, there is still a long way to go, says Tonga's trade minister, in the first ‘E-Commerce Strategy and Roadmap for Tonga’.

A Sister City agreement was signed last week between Kolomotu’a in Tongatapu, and the New South Wales country town of Gunnedah, where Tongan workers are filling critical workforce shortages through the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme.

Forty-five Tongan soldiers from His Majesty’s Armed Forces will take part in the world largest international maritime exercise, the biennial Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC 2022) in Hawaii next month. They departed Tonga for training in Australia on 23 May.

After the challenges we have experienced to connectivity as a result of COVID-19, I am delighted the physical links between Australia and Tonga are building back. We are looking forward to greater flight connectivity between Tonga and Australia beginning this June, and I thank the Government of Tonga for taking the initiative to increase the frequency of passenger flights between our countries. While our physical links were temporarily less frequent, the link of friendship has always been strong. As members of the Pacific family, Australia and Tonga share a close relationship, built over more than fifty years of diplomatic relations. - Rachael Moore, Australian High Commissioner to Tonga

The Government of Tonga today thanked members of a joint military 'Tonga Assist Operation' for their assistance over the past six-weeks, in the aftermath of the volcanic eruption and tsunamis on January 15.

A total of 203 people were repatriated from Australia and New Zealand, arriving in Tonga yesterday, March 8.

Essential COVID-19 supplies and oxygen equipment was donated to the Ministry of Health from the Government of Australia, after the cargo arrived on November 30 at Fua'amotu International Airport.

New York Times News Analysis: When Scott Morrison became Australia’s prime minister three years ago, he insisted that the country could maintain close ties with China, its largest trading partner, while working with the United States, its main security ally. “Australia doesn’t have to choose,” he said in one of his first foreign policy speeches. On Thursday, Australia effectively chose. Following years of sharply deteriorating relations with Beijing, Australia announced a new defense agreement in which the United States and Britain would help it deploy nuclear-powered submarines, a major advance in Australian military strength.