Results for Pacific Islands

Miss Tonga, Racheal Guttenbeil, is one of eight beauty queens vying for the Pacific crown at the 2025 Miss Pacific Pageant, being held in Honiara, Solomon Islands from 1-8 February.

Tonga’s new Prime Minister, Hon. Dr ‘Aisake Valu Eke, will pick up Tonga’s leadership role as Pacific Islands Forum Chair. He will chair pivotal ministerial meetings in 2025, including the Special Forum Economic Ministers Meeting, Forum Trade Ministers Meeting, and Forum Foreign Ministers Meeting.

Fuel recovery is now underway from the sunken HMNZS Manawanui in Samoa. Commodore Andrew Brown said today that salvor divers had begun extracting fuel and other pollutants from the ship, during a complex environmental protection operation that is expected to take a number of weeks. The navy ship sank after running aground on a reef on the southern coast of Upolu in October.

Tongan students at the University of the South Pacific in Vanuatu, this year, say they had returned home after their exams, before the devastating 7.4 magnitude earthquake that struck Port Vila yesterday. The Government of Vanuatu, stated last night that most of the damage was in Port Vila, Efate. There were 14 confirmed deaths, and many injured or missing.

Tonga's Attorney General Hon. Linda Simiki Folaumoetu‘i at the International Court of Justice, in The Hague, Netherlands, called for States “to take collective transformational and cooperative action to mitigate climate change for the benefit for both present and future generations,” when she presented oral statements, during an initiative led by the Republic of Vanuatu in December.

A Royal New Zealand Navy sailor who works to instil the ‘why’ in young recruits has been named the New Zealand Defence Force’s Person of the Year. This is a second honour for Leading Marine Technician (Electrical) Joe Mataele, from Tonga, who is also the Royal New Zealand Navy’s Sailor of the Year.

The University of the South Pacific has named a Tongan, Mr Siosiua Tuitalukua Tupou Utoikamanu, as the new Pro-Chancellor and Chair of Council for a three-year term, starting from 27 November 2024.

Joe Mataele, a Leading Marine Technician (LMT) who grew up in Kolomotu'a Tongatapu, was named the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) 2024 Sailor of the Year. He is a son of the late Joe Tu'ilatai Mataele and Aiona Saluni Mataele, and has family ties to Fo'ui and Kolomotu'a, Tongatapu; Leimatu'a, Vava'u; and Koulo, Ha'apai.

With COP29’s conclusion, the stage shifts to the Hague, where Vanuatu’s landmark International Court of Justice climate change case, will start on 2 December - with 110 UN member states and intergovernmental organisations testifying. Vanuatu's Special Envoy for Climate Change and Environment, stated yesterday that: “The commitments made in Baku — the dollar amounts pledged and the emissions reductions promised — are not enough. They were never going to be enough. And even then, based on our experience with such pledges in the past, we know they will not be fulfilled.”