Results for Pacific Islands

The final day of deliberations by Pacific Islands Forum leaders ended in a disagreement on how they might tackle the issue of climate change. Tonga's PM caught media attention for Tonga’s participation when he was reported to be in tears during tense exchanges between the Tuvalu PM, Hon. Enele Sosene Sopoaga and the Australian Prime Minister, Hon. Scott Morrison.

A world-class and historic collection of barkcloth from the Pacific Ocean is highlighted in a new exhibition opening at the University of Glasgow’s Hunterian Museum on August 29. “Barkcloth: Revealing Pacific Craft” is the result of a major three-year research project.

A ‘climate crisis’ has been declared by Pacific Island States, including Tonga, after signing the Nadi Bay Declaration earlier this week, calling on developed countries to urgently address climate change including phasing out coal mining and fossil fuel use and production.

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.

Facing three days of strike action by aircraft engineers, Air New Zealand stated this morning that, at this stage, no flight delays or cancellations are in place for the three days of proposed strikes by aircraft maintenance unions next week and normal fare conditions remain.

Pacific Islands are way behind the rest of the world with regards to public accessibility to basic utilities such as Water, Sanitation and Electricity, according to the Asian Development Bank’s July 2018 Pacific Economic Monitor, but some of the 15 countries in the study, including Tonga, are doing better than others.