Results for Pacific Islands

The World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF are calling on Pacific communities to vaccinate against measles in response to recent outbreaks of measles in Tonga and Samoa.

With China’s diverse and expanding interests in the Pacific, and its rising economic and strategic strength, one can expect that Chinese presence will grow stronger in the coming decades. China’s growing regional presence is a new reality that needs to be accommodated, not resisted, but this requires great understanding of Chinese interests and views. Given the substantial difference between Chinese and Western views about China’s unique aid policy, simply requesting that China conform to rules set up by traditional aid donors is unlikely to work. By Col. (Ret’d.) Siamelie Latu.

Five contestants of Pacific Island heritage, including Tongans are taking part in the 2019 Miss South Pacific Plus Australia (MSPPA) Beauty Pageant to be held in Sydney, on September 13.

On the eve of the 50th Pacific Islands Forum Meeting taking place in Tuvalu this week, the Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland recognises the existential threat which climate change poses to Pacific Islanders. She calls on governments across the globe to urgently meet the terms of the Paris climate change agreement, if we are to save our Pacific Islands, as the rising sea levels could literally engulf thousands of islands in the region by 2100.

The Chinese proverb goes: “Yāo Xiǎng Fù Xiān Xiū Lù” (“If you want to get rich, build a road.”) This can be updated as: “If you seek prosperity, build connectivity.” By Col. (Ret’d.) Siamelie Latu, Secretary General of the Tonga China Friendship Association.

The importance of geospatial intelligence (identifying the features of the geographic location) in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) work has been underlined at a course at Devonport Naval Base in Auckland, attended by government and military personnel from New Zealand, Australia, the Cook Islands, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu.

Thousands of communities across the North Pacific will benefit from significant upgrades to maritime infrastructure and improved connectivity following approval today by the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors of two grants for US$38.5 million and US$33.1 million for the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) and Marshall Islands, respectively.

A key challenge for the Forum is to maintain its solidarity as staunchly pro-Blue Pacific...where we are custodians of some of the world’s richest biodiversity and marine and terrestrial resources. Leaders have articulated a desire for a shift in the development trajectory for the Pacific, through the Blue Pacific narrative and through it the opportunity to exercise our will. This is the strategic lens through which any conversation over China, and the associated geopolitical and geostrategic environment we find ourselves in, must occur. Our political conversations and settlements must be driven by the well-being of our Blue Pacific continent and its people, not by the goals and ambitions of others. By Dame Meg Taylor.

Disaster relief in the Pacific would be more effective if post-natural disaster relief donors opened up conversations with local women's groups on the ground, the director of the Tonga Women and Children Crisis Centre, 'Ofa Guttenbeil-Likiliki told a regional women's meeting this week.