The head of the Pacific Islands Forum has suggested the region’s foreign ministers could be tasked with deciding whether to lift the suspension of Fiji’s membership. Speaking ahead of the Forum leaders’ summit in Palau, Secretary-General Tuiloma Neroni Slade told the ABC the Ministerial Contact Group could monitor Fiji’s elections in September and then make…
New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully will lead the New Zealand delegation to the 45rd Pacific Islands Forum in Palau on behalf of Prime Minister John Key this week. “The Forum is the foremost annual meeting of Pacific leaders and I am honoured to be representing the Prime Minister at this event,” McCully says. “The…
Pacific Island Countries have in the past six years stepped up their engagement in the international community processes, especially at the United Nations. And the outgoing Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, Tuiloma Neroni Slade of Samoa attributes this to the work done by Pacific Missions represented in New York. “During my six…
Pacific island leaders will renew calls for meaningful action on climate change at a regional summit opening in Palau on Tuesday, amid fears rising seas will swamp their low-lying nations. Many of the 15 nations represented at the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) lie barely a metre (three feet) above sea level, and regard themselves as…
Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, will not be attending the Pacific Islands Forum in Palau next week. The visit would have been Abbott’s first chance to meet Pacific leaders since the election of his coalition government in September last year to discuss many regionally important issues. However, with the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17…
DIGICEL Fiji confirmed on Tuesday an investment of FJ$70 million (K90.9 million) to expand and upgrade its high speed data network. Since its launch in 2008, the company described this as the ‘most significant investment’. The company said the investment will deliver Fiji’s largest 4G network and expand its existing network to 3G+ coverage. Chief…
Around the Pacific, the theatre group Won Smolbag and their TV production Love Patrol are a well-known part of the region’s cultural life. This week the 12,000 delegates at the International AIDS Conference in Melbourne were able to look some of the episodes and meet the actors and writers who bring it to the screen.…
Count kilojoules, always eat breakfast, don’t eat carbs after 6pm. Whether it’s public health advice or conflicting opinions in the media about nutrition, we hear a lot of messages about what and how we should eat. But there’s one message that needs to be louder, says Gabriella Heruc, an Adelaide based Accredited Practising Dietitian –…
The Samoan breadfruit variety ‘maafala’ will be distributed globally in an effort to help food security in vulnerable countries around the world. It is part of a partnership project that has been running for over ten years between the Samoan government and the Hawaii National Botanical Gardens where 120 varieties of breadfruit were tested over…
Opinion by Shane Rosenthal, Resident Representative of the Asian Development Bank’s Timor-Leste Resident Mission Last week government officials, development partners and civil society groups will have met in Dili as part of an annual gathering to review achievements over the last year and consider priorities and plans going forward. Participants will speak about successes and…