Results for Pacific Islands

Thirty-five royal Tongan marines are currently in participating in the world's largest international maritime warfare exercise, Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC 2016), in Hawaii. On their first day of training last Thursday June 30, the Tongan marines conducted Urban operations with Australian, New Zealand and U.S troops at Kaneohe Bay in Hawaii.

The Republic of Kiribati and EU citizens (Schengen Area) are to be exempted from visa requirements when travelling into, from or transiting through the territories of the other for a short period, under a short-stay visa waiver agreement signed on 23 June.

Urgent and stronger action to fight non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the Pacific region is the key message to come out of the NCD summit, attended by over 120 high-level delegates around the Pacific region and international development partners, this week in Nuku’alofa.

Faster response to disaster-impacted areas will rely on new software, which was released for training at Fiji’s Ministry of Agriculture in Suva, on 25 May. The software, part of a global initiative by UNOCHA, will be used across the Pacific and in Fiji to reduce the impact of disaster on agriculture and food security.

The United Nations Development Program Administrator Helen Clark arrived in Tonga on Saturday and will deliver the keynote address at the inaugural Pacific Non Communicable Diseases Summit in Nuku'alofa this morning. The NCD Summit (20-22 June) will be opened by King Tupou VI.

The Government of Nauru has reinforced its commitment to children’s rights by passing the Child Protection and Welfare Act on 10 June. This means legal provisions for the welfare, care and protection of all children in Nauru under the age of 18.

PACER-Plus trade talks may lead to serious implications for Pacific island countries with a range of concerns raised on gender, health, food and national sovereignty, states a report commissioned by the Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG).

In a first for the Pacific islands, Fiji’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Peter Thomson, was elected as President of the upcoming 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly.

A new United States Government fishing regulation that went into effect late last month, violates a conservation measure for high seas fishing in the Western and Central Pacific, “This is a superpower abusing a measure agreed to in December 2015," said Dr Transform Aqorau today, 13 May.