Leaders in the Northern Marianas have warned that a deepening economic crisis in the US territory could begin to undermine civilian systems that support America’s long-term strategic presence in the Indo-Pacific.

In joint letters sent to US President Donald Trump and Admiral Samuel Paparo, commander of US Indo-Pacific Command, Delegate Kimberlyn King-Hinds, Governor David M. Apatang, Senate President Karl King Nabors, and House Speaker Edmund Villagomez urged swift federal action to stabilise the territory’s economy.

They said the CNMI’s small and fragile economic base left it highly vulnerable to further shocks, with potential knock-on effects for infrastructure, workforce stability, and essential services that support US operations in the region.

• READ MORE: Other US Pacific policy reports

King-Hinds said the issue went beyond local governance.

“When core civilian systems begin to fail, the consequences extend well beyond the Commonwealth,” she said, adding that stable communities and reliable infrastructure were essential to sustaining a US presence in the Pacific.

Apatang said the territory was approaching a critical point, citing business closures and population decline.

“We are running out of time,” he said, adding that existing federal tools could still help steady the situation if deployed quickly.

Strategically located
Nabors said economic erosion in a strategically located US jurisdiction risked weakening the civilian foundation that supports military readiness and access in the Indo-Pacific.

Villagomez said early intervention would help preserve long-term options for both the Commonwealth and the United States.

The leaders said the measures outlined in their letters fall within existing federal authorities and do not require new congressional appropriations. They warned that delays could lead to cascading failures across key services and infrastructure, increasing long-term costs and risks.

The appeal was framed as part of a broader effort to ensure the CNMI’s economic challenges are factored into US strategic planning in the Indo-Pacific.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

The Marshall Islands marked 71 years since the most powerful nuclear weapons tests ever conducted were unleashed over the weekend.

The Micronesian nation experienced 67 known atmospheric nuclear tests between 1946 and 1958, resulting in an ongoing legacy of death, illness, and contamination.

The country’s President Hilda Heine says her people continue to face the impacts of US nuclear weapons testing seven decades after the last bomb was detonated.

• READ MORE: Marshall Islands signs treaty banning nuclear weapons in the South Pacific
• Four decades after Rongelap evacuation, Greenpeace makes new plea for nuclear justice by US
• Nuclear justice for the Marshall Islands — a strategy for coordinated action
• UN rights council examines nuclear legacy consequences in the Marshall Islands
• Eyes of Fire – the Last Voyage of the Rainbow Warrior archive (Little Island Press)

The Pacific Islands have a complex history of nuclear weapons testing, but the impacts are very much a present-day challenge, Heine said at the Pacific Islands Forum leaders’ meeting in Tonga last year.

She said that the consequences of nuclear weapons testing “in our own home” are “expensive” and “cross-cutting”.

“When I was just a young girl, our islands were turned into a big laboratory to test the capabilities of weapons of mass destruction, biological warfare agents, and unexploded ordinance,” she said.

“The impacts are not just historical facts, but contemporary challenges,” she added, noting that “the health consequences for the Marshallese people are severe and persistent through generations.”

“We are now working to reshape the narrative from that of being victims to one of active agencies in helping to shape our own future and that of the world around us,” she told Pacific leaders, where the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres was a special guest.

She said the displacement of communities from ancestral lands has resulted in grave cultural impacts, hindering traditional knowledge from being passed down to younger generations.

“As well as certain traditional practices, customs, ceremonies and even a navigational school once defining our very identity and become a distant memory, memorialised through chance and storytelling,” President Heine said.

“The environmental legacy is contamination and destruction: craters, radiation, toxic remnants, and a dome containing radioactive waste with a half-life of 24,000 years have rendered significant areas uninhabitable.

“Key ecosystems, once full of life and providing sustenance to our people, are now compromised.”

Heine said cancer and thyroid diseases were among a list of presumed radiation-induced medical conditions that were particularly prevalent in the Marshallese community.

Displacement, loss of land, and psychological trauma were also contributing factors to high rates of non-communicable diseases, she said.

“Despite these immense challenges, the Marshallese people have shown remarkable resilience and strength. Our journey has been one of survival, advocacy, and an unyielding pursuit of justice.

“We have fought tirelessly to have our voices heard on the international stage, seeking recognition.”

In 2017, the Marshall Islands government created the National Nuclear Commission to coordinate efforts to address testing impacts.

“We are a unique and important moral compass in the global movement for nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation,” Heine said.

The US Deputy Secretary of State in the Biden-Harris administration Kurt Cambell said that Washington, over decades, had committed billions of dollars to the damage and the rebuilding of the Marshall Islands.

“I think we understand that that history carries a heavy burden, and we are doing what we can to support the people in the [Compact of Free Association] states, including the Marshall Islands,” he said.

“This is not a legacy that we seek to avoid. We have attempted to address it constructively with massive resources and a sustained commitment,” he told reporters in Nuku’alofa.

A shared nuclear legacy
The National Nuclear Commission chairperson Ariana Tibon-Kilma, a direct descendant of survivors of the nuclear weapons testing programme Project 4.1 — which was the top-secret medical lab study on the effects of radiation on human bodies — told RNZ Pacific that what occured in Marshall Islands should not happen to any country.

“This programme was conducted without consent from any of the Marshallese people,” she said.

“For a number of years, they were studied and monitored, and sometimes even flown out to the US and displayed as a showcase.

“The history and trauma associated with what happened to my family, as well as many other families in the Marshall Islands, was barely spoken of.

“What happened to the Marshallese people is something that we would not wish upon any other Pacific island country or any other person in humanity.”

She said the nuclear legacy was a shared one.

“We all share one Pacific Ocean and what happened to the Marshall Islands, I am, sure resonates throughout the Pacific,” Tibon-Kilma said.

Billions in compensation
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights for the Pacific head, Heike Alefsen, told RNZ Pacific in Nuku’alofa that “we understand that there are communities that have been displaced for a long time to other islands”.

“I think compensation for survivors is key,” she said.

“It is part of a transitional justice approach. I can’t really speak to the breadth and the depth of the compensation that would need to be provided, but it is certainly an ongoing issue for discussion.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s court hearing in Saipan is set to make “this dot in the middle of the Pacific” the centre of the world for one day, says a CNMI journalist.

The Northern Marianas — a group of islands in the Micronesian portion of the Pacific with a population of about 50,000 — is gearing up for a landmark legal case.

In 2010, WikiLeaks released hundreds of thousands of classified US military documents on Washington’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq — the largest security breaches of their kind in US military history.

• READ MORE: Plea deal ends personal ordeal for Julian Assange, but still media freedom concerns, says MEAA
• Other Julian Assange reports

Assange is expected to plead guilty to a US espionage charge in the US District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands today at 9am local time.

Saipantribune.com journalist and RNZ Pacific’s Saipan correspondent Mark Rabago will be in court, and said it was a significant moment for Saipan.

“Not everybody knows Saipan, much less can spell it right. So it’s one of the few times in a decade that CNMI or Saipan is put in the map,” he said.

He said there was heavy interest from the world’s media and journalists from Japan were expected to fly in overnight.

‘Little dot in the middle’
“It’s significant that our little island, this dot in the middle of the Pacific, is the centre of the world,” Rabago said.

Assange was flying in from the United Kingdom via Thailand on a private jet, Rabago said.

He said it was not known exactly why the case was being heard in Saipan, but there was some speculation.

“He doesn’t want to step foot in the continental US and also Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, is the closest to Australia, aside from Guam,” Rabago said.

Reuters was reporting Assange was expected to return home to Australia after the hearing.

Rabago added that Assange probably was not able to get a court date in Guam, and there was a court date open on Saipan.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

A new report has found practical solutions to address climate change in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), including raising roads and using mangrove forests.

Decision-makers have been urged to prepare for major changes.

These include heatwaves, stronger typhoons, a declining ecosystem, threatened food security and increased health issues.

• READ MORE: Other Pacific climate reports

The research is part of a series of reports by the Pacific Islands Regional Climate Assessment, with support of several government, NGO, and research entities.

Climate variability and extreme events have brought unprecedented challenges to remote atoll communities of Micronesia, especially in the state of Yap.

The report highlighted key issues for health, food security, agriculture, agroforestry, marine and disaster management sectors.

It also looked at the importance of using local knowledge and pairing this with new technology and science to help Micronesia adapt to climate change.

Hope for action
Coordinating lead author Zena Grecni hopes the findings will help policy-makers take action.

“We could see a 20-50 percent decrease in coral reef fish by 2050,” Grecni warned.

Climate proofing

The findings pushed for change at a “grass roots level,” and for state agencies to recognise the need for traditional knowledge and cultural resources in coastal adaptation measures.

About 89 percent of the FSM’s population lives within one kilometre of the coast, and buildings and infrastructure are vulnerable to coastal climate impacts.

The report looked at “climate proofing” interventions such as raising roads and using natural barriers like mangrove forests.

Mangroves have been shown to mitigate the effects of rising sea levels and are more effective long-term for sea level rise, instead of hard structures.

Another key priority was strengthening infrastructure like schools and medical centres.

Climate change in curricula
The report suggested climate change be included in school curricula to help inform future generations.

It highlighted the importance of learning from local knowledge and historical experiences to inform the future of local food supply.

Indigenous practices such as stone-lined enclosures, taro plantings raised above coastal groundwater, and replanted mangroves, were set to respond to sea level rise.

In the past, these reports have been used by other Pacific Islands “as a tool for negotiation,” Grecni said.

The report authors hoped it would help Micronesia in the same way.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

The appointment of Baron Waqa, former President of Nauru, to head the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) next year was a jaw-droppingly poor decision and an insult to everything the regional body is meant to represent.

What were the Forum leaders thinking?

Here’s the thing, they were probably told he was the former President of Nauru, he’ll do, and we have to keep Micronesia happy. Tick.

• READ MORE: Pacific leaders commit to Forum reforms and ‘family unity’
• Other Barbara Dreaver reports at Asia Pacific Report

There is no doubt Micronesia has held the power at this forum after Kiribati dramatically ditched the group last year. It is crucial all Pacific countries, which include NZ and Australia, be united as the world goes through some crazy times.

Micronesia was offered a number of incentives to keep them at the table, including a new sub-regional office in Kiribati, a Pacific Oceans Commissioner based in Palau and Nauru’s Baron Waqa as Secretary-General.

Ongoing investigation
So what sort of man has been chosen to lead the Forum next year?

1. There has been an ongoing Australian Federal Police investigation into Gold Coast phosphate company Getax for the alleged payment of bribes to Nauruan politicians. That includes Baron Waqa, who allegedly received $60,000.
2. In 2014, President Baron Waqa and his government sacked the independent judiciary. He defended doing so, saying, “we have a right to dismiss any person not fulfilling their duties in the best interests of Nauru”. This prompted an international outcry, and the New Zealand government withdrew aid for the judicial system there in protest.
3. In 2015, his government blocked access to Facebook, which many, including a former Chief Justice, believed was an attempt to stifle dissent.
4. Media freedom is an issue — it costs $8750 to apply for media to apply for a visa, and if it is not approved (most of the time), you lose that amount.
   A disclosure: I was taken into custody in 2018 during the Pacific Islands Forum while interviewing a refugee in a public area. The government, led by Nauru President Baron Waqa, later said I wasn’t detained but accompanied them “voluntarily”. An outright lie — two police cars showed up, my equipment and phone were confiscated, and I was ordered into one of the cars. I was then placed in a dark room with a male police officer — a failed attempt at intimidation — for at least an hour before NZ MFAT officials arrived.
5. In 2015, an Australian PR firm, Mercer PR, which was working for the Nauru government, released details of a police report on an assault of a female Somali refugee.

Woman’s name, details released
The local police had found insufficient evidence, and in an extraordinary move, the government released the name of the complainant and graphic details about the allegations, including comments about her vagina and whether there was any evidence of semen and sexual activity.

The founder of the PR company, Lyall Mercer, defended the document release, saying it had done so on behalf of the Nauru government. A government led by Baron Waqa . . . and there was never any back down or apology over this.

How galling to see the sycophantic tweet from Lyall Mercer this week congratulating Waqa for his new PIF role, saying, “he is a person of great integrity & character, has travelled the world extensively & has a love & passion for the region & the Pacific way”.

So how do the women of the region feel about being represented by a man who had no problems with this extraordinary breach of privacy, the absolute contempt for the woman involved, which was clearly intended as a warning for any other female refugee coming forward?

Last year, as part of the PIF communique, the leaders commended the first PIF women leaders’ meeting a “milestone for the region and is demonstrative of its collective commitment to ensure that regional priorities are considerate of gender-balanced views and perspectives”. What a joke.

Pacific politics male-dominated
Politics in the Pacific is male-dominated, that’s a fact, and the Pacific Islands Forum could do a lot more to change that — this appointment is several steps back.

There were some highlights of the PIF special meeting. It was a relief to see Kiribati return to the Pacific Islands Forum. Fiji’s Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka has done more to bring the Pacific countries together than any other individual — as Forum chair, he showed immense integrity during the forum — and finally, from New Zealand’s perspective, I’m told Carmel Sepuloni did an exceptional job at the leader’s table.

But the selection of Baron Waqa shows how desperate Pacific Forum leaders, without doing due diligence, were to keep Micronesia happy.

This a shoddy outcome for what needs to be a strong regional group with good governance, reflective of the people who live in the region, not the people at the top.

Barbara Dreaver is Television New Zealand’s 1News Pacific correspondent. This article is republished with the author’s permission.

How Rabuka is reshaping Fiji’s politics. Video: TVNZ Q&A

On the 61st anniversary of the first raising of West Papua’s symbol of independence — 1 December 1961 — the Morning Star flag:

We, the Indigenous caucus of the movement for self-determination, decolonisation, nuclear justice, and demilitarisation of the Pacific, call for coordinated action for key campaigns that impact the human rights, sovereignty, wellbeing and prosperity of Pacific peoples across our region.

As guardians of our Wansolwara (Tok Pisin term meaning “One Salt Water,” or “One Ocean, One People”), we are united in seeking the protection, genuine security and vitality for the spiritual, cultural and economic base for our lives, and we will defend it at all costs. We affirm the kōrero of the late Father Walter Lini, “No one is free, until everyone is free!”

• LISTEN TO RNZ MORNING REPORT: Activists, academics fight plans to put nuclear waste in Pacific Ocean

We thank the mana whenua of Ōtepoti, Te Ao o Rongomaraeroa, the National Centre for Peace and Conflict and Kā Rakahau o Te Ao Tūroa Centre for Sustainability at the University of Otago for their hospitality in welcoming us as their Pacific whānau to their unceded and sovereign lands of Aotearoa.

We acknowledge the genealogy of resistance we share with community activists who laid the mat in our shared struggles in the 1970s and 1980s. Our gathering comes 40 years after the first Te Hui Oranga o Te Moana Nui a Kiwa, hosted by the Pacific Peoples Anti Nuclear Action Committee (PPANAC) at Tātai Hono in Tamaki Makaurau.

Self-determination and decolonisation
We remain steadfast in our continuing solidarity with our sisters and brothers in West Papua, who are surviving from and resisting against the Indonesian genocidal regime, injustice and oppression. We bear witness for millions of West Papuans murdered by this brutal occupation. We will not be silent until the right to self-determination of West Papua is fully achieved.

We urge our Forum leaders to follow through with Indonesia to finalise the visit from the UN Commissioner for Human Rights to West Papua, as agreed in the Leaders Communiqué 2019 resolution.

We are united in reaffirming the inalienable right of all Indigenous peoples to self-determination and demand the sovereignty of West Papua, Kanaky, Mā’ohi Nui, Bougainville, Hawai’i, Guåhan, the Northern Mariana Islands, Rapa Nui, Aotearoa, and First Nations of the lands now called Australia.

Of priority, we call on the French government to implement the United Nations self-governing protocols in Mā’ohi Nui and Kanaky. We urge France to comply with the resolution set forth on May 17th, 2013 which declared French Polynesia to be a non-self-governing territory, and the successive resolutions from 2013 to 2022. The “empty seat policy” that the administering power has been practising since 2013 and attempts to remove Mā’ohi Nui from the list of countries to be decolonised have to stop. We call on France to immediately resume its participation in the work of the C-24 and the 4th Commission of the United Nations.

Nuclear justice
We grieve for the survivors and victims who lost their lives to the nuclear violence caused by over 315 nuclear weapons detonated in Marshall Islands, Australia, Kiribati, Johnston Atoll and Mā’ohi Nui by the United States, United Kingdom/Australia and France. The legacy and ongoing nuclear violence in our region is unfinished business and calls for recognition, reconciliation and reparations to be made by nuclear colonisers are long overdue.

We call for the United States, United Kingdom/Australia and France to deliver fair and just
compensation to Indigenous civilians, workers and servicemen for the health and environmental harms, including intergenerational trauma caused by nuclear testing programs (and subsequent illegal medical experiments in the Marshall Islands). The compensation schemes currently in place in all states constitute a grave political failure of these aforementioned nuclear testing states and serve to deceive the world that they are recognising their responsibility to address the nuclear legacy. We call for the United States, United Kingdom/Australia, and France to establish or otherwise significantly improve
accessible healthcare systems and develop and fund cancer facilities within the Marshall Islands, Kiribati/Australia and Mā’ohi Nui respectively, where alarming rates of cancers, birth defects and other related diseases continue to claim lives and cause socio-economic distress to those affected. The descendants of the thousands of dead and the thousands of sick are still waiting for real justice to be put in place with the supervision of the international community.

We demand that the French government take full responsibility for the racist genocidal health effects of nuclear testing on generations of Mā’ohi and provide full transparency, rapid assessment and urgent action for nuclear contamination risks. While the President of France boasts on the international stage of his major environmental and ecological transition projects, in the territory of Mā’ohi Nui, the French government’s instructions are to definitively “turn the page of nuclear history.” This is a white-washing and colonial gas-lighting attitude towards the citizens and now the mokopuna of Mā’ohi Nui. It is
imperative for France to produce the long-awaited report on the environmental, economic and sanitary consequences of its 193 nuclear tests conducted between 1966 and 1996.

We proclaim our commitment to the abolition of nuclear weapons and call all states of the Pacific region who have not done so to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), namely Australia, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Papua New Guinea, the Federated States of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands. We urge Pacific nations along with the world’s governments to contribute to the international trust fund for victims of nuclear weapons implemented by the TPNW. We urge Aotearoa/New Zealand and other states who have ratified the TPNW to follow through on their commitment to nuclear survivors, and to create a world free from the threat and harm of nuclear weapons through the universalisation of the TPNW. There can be no peace without justice.

We oppose the despicable proposal of Japan and the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) to dump 1.3 million tonnes of radioactive wastewater next year in 2023, and support in solidarity with the citizens of Japan, East Asian states and Micronesian states who sit on the frontlines of this crisis. This is an act of trans-boundary harm upon the Pacific. We call on the New Zealand government and others to stay true to its commitment to a Nuclear Free Pacific and bring a case under the international tribunal for the Law of the Sea against the proposed radioactive release from TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi planned from 2023 to 2053.

Demilitarisation
We condemn the geopolitical order forced upon our nations by imperial powers, who claim to be our friends, yet treat our islands as collateral damage and use financial blackmail to bully us into submission. We demand that the United States remove and remediate all military bases, infrastructure, debris and nuclear and chemical waste from the Pacific. Of priority is the US-owned nuclear waste storage site of Runit Dome on Enewetak Atoll which threatens nuclear contamination of the ocean and marine-life, on which our lives depend. Furthermore, we call for all remaining American UXOs (unexploded ordnances) from World War II in the Solomon Islands, which cause the preventable deaths of more than 20 people every year to be removed immediately!

We support in solidarity with Kānaka Maoli and demand the immediate end to the biennial RIMPAC (Rim of the Pacific) exercises hosted in Honolulu, Hawai’i. We urge all the present participating militaries of RIMPAC to withdraw their participation in the desecration and plunder of Indigenous lands and seas. We support in solidarity with the Marianas and demand an end to munitions testing in the Northern Marianas and the development of new military bases. We rebuke the AUKUS trilateral military pact and the militarisation of unceded Aboriginal lands of the northern arc of Australia and are outraged at Australia’s plans to permit further military bases, six nuclear-capable B52s and eight nuclear-powered submarines to use our Pacific Ocean as a military playground and nuclear highway.

We call on all those committed to ending militarism in the Pacific to gather and organise in Hawai’i between 6-16 June 2024, during the Festival of the Pacific and bring these issues to the forefront to renew our regional solidarity and form a new coalition to build power to oppose all forms of military exercises (RIMPAC also returns in July -August 2024) and instead promote the genuine security of clean water, safe housing, healthcare and generative economies, rather than those of extraction and perpetual readiness for war.

We view colonial powers and their militaries to be the biggest contributors to the climate crisis, the continued extractive mining of our lands and seabeds and the exploitation of our resources. These exacerbate and are exacerbated by unjust structures of colonialism, militarism and geopolitical abuse. This environmental destruction shifts the costs to Pacific and Indigenous communities who are responsible for less than 1 percent of global climate emissions.

As Pacific peoples deeply familiar with the destruction of nuclear imperialism, we strongly disapprove of the new propaganda of nuclear industry lobbyists, attempting to sell nuclear power as the best solution for climate change. Similarly, we oppose the Deep Sea Mining (DSM) industry lobbyists that promote DSM as necessary for green technologies. We call for a Fossil Fuel Non-proliferation Treaty to be implemented by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and for safe and equitable transition to better energy solutions. We reject any military solution for the climate crisis!

We recognise the urgent need for a regional coordinator to be instituted to strategise collective grassroots movements for self-determination, decolonisation, nuclear justice and demilitarisation.

Our existence is our resistance.

We, the guardians of our Wansolwara, are determined to carry on the legacy and vision for a Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific.

• More information

Pacific leaders really need to look seriously at the concerns raised by the President Taneti Maamau of Kiribati, resulting in the country’s withdrawal from the Pacific Islands Forum.

This is the view of Tuvalu’s Foreign Minister Simon Kofe, who said he was saddened by the turn of events.

“It came by surprise to us, but I think in the spirit of solidarity and unity, we really need to look seriously at the concerns raised by the President of Kiribati and I’m sure it’s going to be discussed this week by the leaders,” he said.

• READ MORE: Kiribati ‘cooking something with China’, says ex-Kiribati president
• Fiji police evict two Chinese defence attaches amid Pacific Forum tensions
• US announces major Pacific push, embassies in Tonga, Kiribati
• Climate crisis top Pacific agenda item and it’s a security issue, says Ardern
• $10m climate funding to support Pacific seed crops
• More Pacific Islands Forum summit leaders pull out as crisis grows
• Pacific Islands Forum ‘on course’ as China issue casts shadow
• Kiribati exit from Pacific forum ‘out of order’, says founding president
• Other Pacific Islands Forum reports

Samoan Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa said the forum meeting was significant considering the leaders had not met for the past two years.

“The issue was, first and foremost, the unity of the region, bringing back the northern members, so I think we’re fairly successful in that,” she said.

“We hope they will come back to the fold and we need to understand what’s happening with Kiribati.”

PIF Secretary-General Henry Puna said that after the forum meeting the forum would approach Kiribati to address its concerns.

‘The forum family has challenges’
“Like in any family, the forum family has its challenges and we might not agree on everything all the time, but what is important is that when disagreements do arise, we have the grace to get together and talk,” he said.

“Make time because you know in the Pacific way, talanoa is absolutely critical, that’s what we are looking forward to, to engage with the President and governing people of Kiribati so that we can find a way forward.

“I believe by talking, you can resolve any problem and so give us time and I’m sure that our leaders are very keen to engage with Kiribati and to find a way to embrace them back into the forum family.”

Wanshika Kumar is a Fiji Times reporter. Republished with permission.

Seats were glaringly empty at the Pacific Islands Forum summit in Suva this morning as Pacific leaders sat down to the first formal gathering.

Prime ministers from Australia and Papua New Guinea are expected to fly into Suva tonight. However, the empty seats with Marshall Islands, Kiribati and Nauru name tags will not be filled.

This morning’s meeting for leaders, observers and associate members was opened by Fiji Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama, who acknowledged the “breakdown in communication’ with the Micronesian bloc.

• READ MORE: More Pacific Islands Forum summit leaders pull out as crisis grows
• Kiribati exit from Pacific forum ‘out of order’, says founding president
• Other Pacific Islands Forum reports

He called on the leaders to remember the necessity of re-establishing “our family bonds”.

This morning’s meeting was to bring all members, associate members and observers to the table with heads of the Council of Regional Organisations in the Pacific.

Meanwhile, Pacific Islands Forum Secretary-General Henry Puna has acknowledged this year’s meeting was “not an ordinary forum”.

“Let is not forget this is an opportunity for us to bond as colleagues,” Puna said.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

The number of leaders attending the Pacific Islands Forum summit in Suva, Fiji, has dropped further, with both the president of the Marshall Islands and the Cook Islands prime minister pulling out.

It was revealed at the weekend that Kiribati President Taneti Maamau was not attending the gathering, and his nation had formally withdrawn from the forum.

Nauru’s President Lionel Aingimea was also understood to not be attending, ostensibly because of the soaring levels of covid-19 in his country.

• READ MORE: Kiribati exit from Pacific forum ‘out of order’, says founding president
• Other Pacific Islands Forum reports

Now, Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown has also pulled out, saying he wants to focus on his country’s election, which is to be held in three weeks.

And Marshall Islands President David Kabua has said he would have attended the summit, but was not able to because of a legislatively-binding action to terminate the country’s membership in the forum.

That legislation had resulted from the five Micronesian leaders threatening to pull out 18 months ago over the failure of their nominee to be given the secretary generalship.

A forum committee announced last month that a remedy had been found for this rift and that it would be voted on at this week’s meeting

Kabua announced that the Marshall Islands is no longer a member of the forum, and has not been so since March of this year.

The five Micronesian states which have raised concerns at the appointment of Cook Islands politician Henry Puna as secretary-general of the Pacific Islands Forum are Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru and Palau.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

The 51st Pacific Forum Leaders (PIF) Meeting starting today has been dealt a major blow after the Kiribati government confirmed it has withdrawn from the forum “with immediate effect”.

RNZ Pacific has seen a copy of a leaked letter, dated July 9, from Kiribati President Taneti Maamau to the forum’s Secretary-General Henry Puna, in which he expresses concerns over the regional body’s leadership, as well as the Suva Agreement signed last month.

According to the leaked communication, Kiribati did not sign up to the now-controversial deal, which was touted to mend the leadership rift and prevent the Micronesian subregion to split from the region’s premier political institution.

• READ MORE: Other Pacific Islands Forum reports

“We established a reform package that contains commitments that deepen trust and political cohesion across our region,” Fiji Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama had said after the conclusion of a special two-day meeting with three Micronesian leaders and the leaders of Cook Islands and Samoa in June.

“Fiji fully supports its [Suva Agreement] adoption at the next Pacific Islands Forum,” Bainimarama, also forum chair, said.

But in the letter to Puna, President Maamau states: “There was never a Micronesian Presidents’ Summit (MPS) caucus decision on the PIF reform packages that Kiribati was part of, and particularly an MPS collective decision to return to the PIF.”

The Kiribati president also requested for the forum to push out the date of the leaders convening so it would not coincide with their National Day celebrations. However, this was not considered.

RNZ Pacific understands forum officials are now working behind the scenes to convince the Kiribati government to reconsider its decision and urgently fly them over for the high-level meeting in Fiji’s capital.

RNZ has contacted the Forum Secretariat for comment.

Bringing the ‘family together’
Pacific leaders have attempted to bring the “family together” and resolve the political impasse for months, but there appears to be an apparent fracture within the forum.

Last week, New Zealand Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta, who is confirmed to be attending the meeting in Suva headed by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, said the forum was “at the heart of our engagement with the region”.

Mahuta welcomed the Suva Agreement and calling it “the Pacific-led solution that will see Micronesian states represented at the forum this year.”

But the latest turn of events indicates Pacific Forum leaders are scrambling to find a swift resolution ahead of the opening of one of the most significant leaders’ meetings in recent history starting tomorrow.

A diplomatic source close to RNZ Pacific said Puna must address the issues raised by Kiribati as there were concerns about the role of the secretary-general being a matter of “pride”.

The Suva Agreement
Tension between the Micronesian states and the office of the secretary-general of the PIF has been high since the Micronesian candidate for the top job narrowly missed out to Puna.

But the situation had been improving following the High-Level Political Dialogue which resulted in the Suva Agreement on June 6.

The agreement engineered by forum chair Bainimarama was tweaked by PIFS senior officials meeting earlier last week and approved by the Forum Foreign Ministers on Friday to be tabled for sign off at the Leaders Retreat on Thursday.

In the Suva Agreement, the secretary-general’s term is to be extended from three to five years and Puna would continue till 2024.

Then, unlike every other previous secretary-general in recent times, he is to step down without seeking re-election to make way for a Micronesian candidate.

Current Marshallese Ambassador to the United States and dual Palauan citizen Gerald Zackios was the Micronesian state’s nominee to the position of the forum secretary-general at the last vote of the Leaders Retreat in Tuvalu in 2019.

Also in the agreement is the induction of recruitment procedures for the top job to formalise the “Gentlemen’s Agreement” so the job rotates among the three sub-regions.

To ensure equal representation, an additional deputy secretary-general position is to be created and filled by other candidates to ensure each region can be represented all the time in the Forum Secretariat.

Additionally, Micronesia has asked that the Office of the Pacific Ocean Commissioner (OPOC), a position also held by the PIFS secretary-general and housed in Suva, is to be moved to a Micronesian state along with a new forum sub regional office.

The other major CROP agency, the Pacific Community, has a Micronesian regional office in Pohnpei.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

In a watershed moment, Pacific Islands Forum leaders have agreed on terms to prevent Micronesian countries from breaking up the leading regional body.

The row, which came to a head in February last year, centred around the selection of a candidate for the top job at the Forum, with Micronesia feeling snubbed when its candidate Gerald Zackios was overlooked for the former Cook Islands Prime Minister Henry Puna.

The high level political dialogue was held in-person in the Fiji capital Suva yesterday.

• READ MORE: Pacific leaders talk Micronesia, China and regional stability, security
• Other Pacific Islands Forum reports

It was hosted by Fiji’s Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama, the current chair of the Forum and attended by the leaders of Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, Samoa and the Cook Islands.

To outsiders looking in, the Forum row over an executive position might have looked a bit silly.

But it was about more than just a job title.

As the president of Palau Surangel Whipps Jr explains it, it was a feeling on the Micronesians part of being excluded from the day to day business of the Forum and by extension the region as a whole.

‘Let us look long term’
“Micronesia said the SG (Secretary-General) is supposed to be Micronesian. But what is more important is, let us look long term.”

And it is that long term vision that clinched the deal for the Micronesians in Suva.

They came in wanting Puna out and were offered to have the rotation of the top job by sub-region put into writing and become a permanent fixture of the Forum going forward.

“By the Forum agreeing that now we are going to put it in writing. It is going to be rotational we are going to be more inclusive at the head office, have deputies that represent the region, and sub-regional offices and the other the oceans commissioner all those add to being inclusive.”

Samoa’s Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mataafa is new at the helm and was not part of the events that led up to the rift. But she said she was pleased to be part of the solution.

“We need to go through the process of all the members signing up, but those of us who are here, six of us, I think are representative of the three sub-regions and hopefully we will be able to implement what has been proposed and agreed to,” she said.

Clock still ticking
This is a crucial detail. The clock is still ticking towards when the formal withdrawal processes initiated by the five disgruntled Micronesian states last year becomes official. RNZ Pacific understands the first of them matures at the end of this month.

That being said, it is still a huge break through and one Federated States of Micronesia President David Panuelo said he was grateful for.

“Because just a few days a go it could have been that we will walk away and break up the entire Pacific Family but the common ground that we have reached has kept us together,” he said.

Both Panuelo and Whipps Jr acknowledged the mediation of Pacific Islands Forum chair Voreqe Bainimarama and the Troika plus members and all other leaders involved in the political dialogue leading up to this juncture.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Regional stability and security, and the China Economic and Security Deal were on the agenda today when some Pacific leaders met in Suva, Fiji, a Micronesian head of the Pacific’s regional political body says

Several Pacific Island heads of state, including at least three from the Micronesian states, have arrived in Fiji for two days of meetings called by Fijian Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama.

As chair of the Pacific Islands Forum(PIF), Bainimarama is positioned to call meetings of the Pacific Troika which includes current, incoming and immediate past chairs of the Forum.

• READ MORE: China loses its way in the South Pacific – Michael Field
• Other China in the Pacific reports

This usually takes place ahead of the Pacific Forum Leaders Meeting which this year will take place in July.

The heads of the governments of Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia confirmed the Troika would meet with the Micronesian Presidents’ Summit (MPS) in the second of The Political Dialogue Mechanism, an initiative to allow for open conversation between PIF leaders.

When it last sat last year, the Political Dialogue Mechanism sought to address tensions within the PIF after the Micronesia President’s Summit threatened to pull out its membership of the forum, threatening regional stability for the first time.

The President of Federated States of Micronesia David Panuelo told RNZ Pacific in Suva, that the Micronesian leader’s main agenda was the tension over the way Micronesia was denied what long-standing regional tradition owed them, the seat of Secretary-General of the PIFS.

‘Nothing really being resolved’
“This is exactly why we’re here and talks are ongoing, and nothing is really being resolved but we’re actively discussing this. This is a very good trip for our Micronesian brothers. Meetings are ongoing and today we will continue to discuss how we can get the best in terms of uniting and promoting regionalism,” President Panuelo said.

“We’re all optimistic until, without ruling out any possibilities. I think we are optimistic. Let’s look forward to a successful conclusion of our ongoing meetings.”

Meanwhile, President of Palau Surangel Whipps Jr said the two-day meeting would be the first time since the pandemic that Pacific leaders could meet in person, which made it an “opportunity to invest” in good dialogue.

The Palauan president said Micronesian states had made clear their stance on the SG’s position and hoped the leader’s meeting would “come up with a solution where we can all walk away from it with good understanding and rebuilding of that trust.”

“Well, I’m optimistic because we’re here. And we have the opportunity to sit down and discuss and find the best way forward,” he said

Palau, which like most of the Micronesian states has diplomatic relations with Taiwan instead of China, hopes the Political Dialogue Mechanism would provide the space for Pacific leaders to “really share each other’s concerns and try to find a way forward where we can all be the winners.”

Micronesian states believe the Pacific Islands Forum as a political bloc was built on values of trust and mutual respect which needed rebuilding, implying the fragmentation created by tension over the SG’s position is further threatened by the emergence of China’s plan for its presence in the Pacific.

‘Regaining trust, respect’
“I think what’s most important is regaining that trust and mutual respect among the Micronesians and the rest of the forum. That’s what’s most important. How do we rebuild that? That’s the question and I think that’s what the discussion over the next few days is going to be about,” Whipps Jr said.

Micronesian leaders are concerned over the wording in China’s proposed Pacific Economic Security deal leaked ahead of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s visit late last month.

“We are friends to everyone and enemies to none but we also lived through World War Two. When we see documents that say, you know, certain countries need to be taken or taken back, it brings us back to the time of where we were all involved in World War Two and we don’t want to relive that,” Whipps Jr said.

“We are peaceful countries and we want to live in peace and harmony. That’s the value of the forum. It’s the Pacific coming together and sharing the same values and I think we all want peace and prosperity in the region.”

Samoan Prime Minister Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa has also arrived in Fiji for the meeting and the opening of a new Samoan High Commission in Suva.

Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown is also in Fiji and opened a new high commission in the Fijian capital.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Four Micronesian leaders skipped the Pacific Islands Forum’s 51st virtual session yesterday, in a continuing protest over the organisation’s refusal to assign the leadership post to the subregion as previously agreed.

Fiji Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama’s official apology proved not convincing enough to break the impasse and appease the Micronesian leaders.

The Micronesian nations — Palau, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati and Nauru — declined to reconsider their collective decision to exit from the regional body if the gentleman’s agreement was not honoured.

• READ MORE: ‘We’re sorry,’ Pacific Forum chair tells Micronesia over SG post
• Climate, covid and co-ordination: Forum leaders hold online summit
• Pacific Islands Forum

Nauru President Lionel Aingimea, chair of the Micronesian Presidents’ Summit (MPS), was the only leader from the breakaway group who attended today’s meeting, where PIF discussed a planned in-person leaders’ retreat scheduled for 2022.

In a statement issued after the meeting, Aingimea said Micronesian leaders “are standing on the principles of the Mekreos Communique” and “are not attending the retreat”.

“The Mekreos Communique articulates that if the long-standing gentlemen’s agreement is not honoured, then the Micronesian presidents see no benefit in remaining with PIF,” Aingimea said.

The Mekreos Communique is a declaration signed by Palau, FSM, Marshall Islands, Nauru and Kiribati in 2020.

Micronesians support Zackios
The Micronesian leaders maintain that their candidate, Ambassador Gerald M. Zackios, must assume the secretary-general position in line with the gentlemen’s agreement’ for sub-regional rotation.

“Presidents agreed that the solidarity and integrity of the PIF are strengthened by the gentlemen’s agreement, that this issue is one of respect and Pacific unity, and that it is non-negotiable for the Member States. Presidents agreed that in the ‘Pacific Way’, a ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ is an agreement, and if this agreement is not honoured, then the presidents would see no benefit to remaining in the PIF,” the Mekreos Communique stated.

Nauru, FSM, RMI and Palau commenced the process for withdrawal from the PIF in February 2021 and will take effect by February 2022.

The 51st Pacific Islands Forum Leaders virtual meeting today also coincided with the 50th Anniversary of the Pacific Islands Forum.

Nauru is a founding member of the Forum, along with six others — Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, New Zealand, Tonga and Western Samoa (now Samoa).

Tuvalu Prime Minister Kausea Natano handed over as Forum Chair to host leader of the 51st Pacific Islands Forum, Fiji Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama.

Bainarama welcomed Secretary-General Henry Puna and said they were looking forward to working with him.

Samoan PM welcomed
Bainarama also welcomed Samoa’s new Prime Minister Fiamē Naomi Mata-afa to the meeting.

While the forum celebrates 50 years of milestones, it is also facing a crisis with the looming fracture of the regional body.

Bainarama apologised anew to the Micronesian head of states over the PIF secretariat leadership row.

“To our Micronesian brothers, I offer my deepest apology, we could have handled the situation better, but I remain confident that we will find a way forward together,”

“I hope this meeting provides an avenue for frank dialogue,” Bainarama said.

He said he did not expect a resolution of the rift yesterday but he said the forum would continue dialogue with the Micronesian leaders.

“None of us can do this alone,” he said, and urged solidarity and to retain Pacific regionalism, especially on the issue of climate change and covid-19-related economic crisis.

Puna in his statement said the region was in the midst of “unprecedented challenges” of covid pandemic, climate change, and geopolitical interests.

He also cited the challenges the forum is facing among the members.

“Our bond as one forum family is being put to the extreme test,” Puna said.

But he was hopeful that the members would stay together with continued dialogue.

Fiji’s Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama used his inaugural speech as the new chair of the Pacific Islands Forum to offer an apology to the Micronesian members of the Pacific grouping who were angered by the way the Forum rejected their nominee for the Forum Secretary-General’s job.

“I offer you my deepest apology,” said Bainimarama at the handover ceremony done virtually at the start of the 51st Pacific Islands Forum Leaders’ retreat today.

“We could have handled it better,” he added.

• READ MORE: Climate, covid and co-ordination: Forum leaders hold online summit
• Pacific Islands Forum

All five Micronesian members of the Forum – Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru and Palau – announced the decision to withdraw from the Pacific leaders group soon after the leaders decision last February to appoint Henry Puna — former prime minister of Cook Islands — as the new Forum SG, ahead of Micronesia’s candidate, Ambassador Gerald Zakios from the Marshall Islands.

The Micronesians had argued that it was Micronesia’s turn to nominate one of their own for the SG position, succeeding Dame Meg Taylor of Papua New Guinea.

At the start of today’s Forum Leaders’ retreat, only Nauru’s President Lionel Aingimea was present.

Outgoing Pacific Islands Forum chair Kausea Natano, who is Prime Minister of Tuvalu, made mention of the Micronesians in his handover address, and although he gave no clue as to whether his attempts to win back the Micronesians into the Forum had had any success, he stressed “unity and solidarity” for the Pacific regional bloc.

Pacific Way
He believes the Pacific Way of talanoa and dialogue as the way forward to resolving the impasse between the northern Micronesian nations and their southern Pacific neighbours.

The dialogue should be “frank and respectful”, he said.

Prime Minister Natano also spoke about the need for the islands of the Pacific to stay the course on climate change, that their voices ought to be “united and loud”.

He also wanted Pacific Islands Forum unity in opposing Japan’s plans to dump contaminated nuclear waste into the Pacific Ocean.

Both Scott Morrison of Australia and Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand were at the opening of the Leaders Retreat this morning, as well as the Pacific Islands Forum’s newest member, Fiame Naomi Mata’afa, Prime Minister of Samoa.

Prime Minister Bainimarama congratulated Prime Minister Fiame by stating that while her coming into office was “not easy,” her achievement was still a proud milestone.

As the new Forum chair, and recalling his navigation days as a navy boat commander, Bainimarama said the Forum’s 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent would be the “northern star” in charting the work of the regional body.

Blue Pacific strategy
The strategy is on the agenda of the leaders’ one-day retreat today together with a common position on the incoming climate change negotiations in COP26 in Scotland in October, as well as a review of a joint forum action on combatting covid-19.

Due to the closure of international borders, all these discussions are held over zoom, although another leaders’ retreat is planned for January next year, by which time Fiji hopes its international borders would be open, and the Pacific Leaders would be able to attend the meeting in person.

In addition to speeches of the outgoing and incoming chair of the Pacific Islands Forum, this morning’s opening of the 51st Leaders retreat was also addressed by the new Forum Secretary General Henry Puna, as well as an address via video by United States President Joe Biden.

A video to mark the 50th anniversary of the Pacific Islands Forum was also screened.

Pita Ligaiula is a journalist with the Pacnews regional cooperative news agency.

Micronesian leaders have received an apology from their colleagues in the Pacific Islands Forum.

In what has been described as a frank and open political dialogue on Monday the Forum leaders aimed to heal the wounds caused by the selection of the Cook Islands’ Henry Puna as the new secretary-general of the agency.

Micronesia’s leaders believed they had a commitment that their candidate, Gerald Zackios from the Marshall Islands, would be named secretary-general.

• READ MORE: Micronesian leaders and the Pacific Islands Forum

In February, the five Micronesian members of the Forum announced they would leave in protest at the selection.

But in a virtual meeting, dubbed the Troika Plus dialogue, on Monday, the Micronesian leaders heard apologies from Papua New Guinea’s James Marape, Fiji’s Voreqe Bainimarama, Samoa’s Tuila’epa Sa’ilele Mailielegaoi and the outgoing Secretary-General Dame Meg Taylor.

The leaders expressed regret and acknowledged that the situation could have been managed differently and better.

‘Secure regional solidarity’
The Forum chair, Tuvalu Prime Minister, Kausea Natano, reminded the leaders the dialogue was to listen to the concerns and issues of the Micronesian presidents and to “secure the solidarity of our region.”

Nauru’s President Aingimea was deeply thankful and moved by the depth of sincerity in an apology that he said “resonates deep within my heart.”

“Leadership is shown at times like this and to the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, the Prime Minister of Samoa, and the Prime Minister of Fiji, you have shown yourselves to be able leaders; wise leaders, in bringing words like this to us here,” he said.

Marape appealed to Micronesia not to leave the Forum and encouraged the leaders to “break bread” and right the wrong.

He reiterated his choice in voting with Micronesia at the election of the PIF secretary-general, and urges that in the interest of regional solidarity the election of the secretary general should be on rotation even if it was not a written agreement, for what he describes as for brotherhood.

Samoa’s Tuila’epa said the meeting came at an opportune time and that more time for discussion could have reached an appropriate way out.

Are apologies too little, too late?
Palau’s president says apologies from some Pacific Islands Forum leaders this week is a step in the right direction but more action is needed.

The apologies follow the public falling out with Micronesian states earlier this year over their preferred candidate for the Forum’s secretary general’s post, Gerald Zackios, being snubbed for Cook Islands’ Henry Puna.

On Monday, the leaders of Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Samoa acknowledged the situation could have been managed better.

Surangel Whipps Jr says he believes they are genuine and heartfelt, but that the Micronesian leader’s position remains the same and they need more than an apology to return to the Forum.

“I don’t think any of us are coming back to the Forum unless we see change. We’ve made that position clear and that continues to be our position, and I think the Troika understands that. So, we’ve officially withdrawn and I would assume that no one’s going back unless change happens.”

RNZ Pacific’s correspondent in the Marshall Islands, Giff Johnson, says the apologies are probably too little, too late.

“Given the feelings that were expressed around the time of the vote, a couple of months back, and just the fallout that developed … in some ways it was perhaps unfortunate that people had painted themselves into a corner on it, in the lead-up to the secretary general vote,” he said.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Micronesian leaders are to meet today to agree on a united response to the snub of their preferred candidate as Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) secretary-general last week.

They say the rejection of Marshall Islands’ Gerald Zackios has led to division within the Pacific.

PIF members voted in favour of former Cook Islands prime minister Henry Puna.

• READ MORE: Palau preparing to leave Pacific Islands Forum
• Palau Congress backs withdrawal from Pacific Forum
• A bruising 24 hours in the Pacific

The chair of the Micronesian Presidents’ Summit, President Lionel Aingimea of Nauru, has scheduled Monday’s virtual meeting.

It follows last October’s “Mekreos Communique” where presidents of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru and Palau insisted the Forum honour an unwritten gentleman’s agreement to rotate the secretary-general role by sub-region.

They were clear that it was Micronesia’s turn.

The lack of support for their candidate leaves the Micronesian states to decide whether or not to remain in the Forum and to co-ordinate a united response to the vote.

In a separate diplomatic note advising Fiji of the closure of its Suva embassy, Palau also mentions it will be terminating its participation in the Pacific Islands Forum.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Former Cook Islands Prime Minister Henry Puna has been narrowly elected as the new secretary-general of the Pacific Islands Forum after a marathon online meeting.

Puna was voted in over Micronesia’s candidate Marshall Islands Ambassador to the US, Gerald Zackious, by nine to eight.

The outgoing secretary-general, Papua New Guinea’s Dame Meg-Taylor had been in the role for more than six years.

• READ MORE: Other Pacific Islands Forum reports

Regional divisions over who should replace her emerged last year.

Micronesian states threatened to leave the Forum if the role was not given to their candidate, saying that it was Micronesia’s turn, citing a pledge to rotate the post by sub-region.

But Polynesian and Melanesian countries backed their own candidates.

The appointment has already drawn expressions of frustration from Micronesia, with Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr describing the Forum as an organisation in which the South Pacific countries side with the bigger countries – Australia and New Zealand – to dominate decision-making.

‘No need for Micronesians’
“Clearly there is no need really for Micronesians to be part of them (PIF), they don’t really consider us part of them,” Whipps Jr lamented.

He said other Forum members did not want to honour the pledge, denying that they knew anything about it.

Other contenders were Tongan economist Amelia Kinahoi Siamomua, Fiji former foreign minister Ratu Inoke Kubuabola, and Jimmie Rodgers of Solomon Islands, formerly the director-general of the Pacific Community.

With leaders unable to reach consensus in last night’s Special Leaders Retreat, the appointment process went to a vote. It resulted in three eliminations and a final vote after midnight.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was one of the only national leaders of the 18 Forum members states or territories not to attend the online meeting. The country’s Foreign Minister, Nanaia Mahuta, logged on instead.

‘Stellar leadership’
In a statement, Forum leaders commended Dame Meg’s “stellar leadership and guidance to the Pacific Islands Forum on regional issues over the past 6 years and wished her well in her future endeavours”.

Also on the agenda of the Special Leaders Retreat, conducted via video-conferencing, was the covid-19 pandemic, including the distribution of vaccines to the region.

Leaders acknowledged the region’s efforts to date to manage the spread of the covid-19 pandemic in the Pacific region, including through the establishment and operationalisation of the Pacific Humanitarian Pathway on covid-19.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Traditional chiefs are trying to expel a US journalist from the Federated States of Micronesia island of Yap.

Last week the Pacific Island Times reported that the chiefs, member of the council of Pilung, had written a letter to the Yap Legislature requesting that Joyce McClure be made a “persona non grata”.

Signed by nine chiefs, the letter described McClure’s journalistic activates as “disruptive to the state environment and/or to the safety and security of the state” and labelled the news magazine and website she writes for, Pacific Islands Times, a “fake news agency”.

READ MORE: Yap’s traditional chiefs seek to expel probing US journalist

It also said McClure’s articles contained “biased strong opinions against Asian ethnicity”.

RNZ Pacific reported that the efforts to have her expelled were linked to her scrutiny of Chinese investment on the island.

“They have been what I call cautionary tales about what the Chinese government is doing in terms of their Belt and Road initiative,” she told RNZ in an interview.

Such stories have investigated pollution from a Chinese resort development and the operation of Chinese fisheries in local waters.

Mystery stories

However, McClure said she did know which story the chiefs had taken issue with.

“It’s a mystery what they are referring to,” she said.

“I do wish they would come forward with examples of what they’re talking about.”

Pacific Island Times publisher and editor-in-chief chief Mar-Vic Cagurangan told Pacific Media Watch the campaign against McClure was consistent with a publishing climate where “community connections influence what gets published.”

“It is not easy to be a journalist in a small community, where everyone knows everyone – everyone is related,” she said.

Based in nearby Guam, Cagurangan said that although the island benefits from the US First Amendment of the right to free speech, local media organisations may face “economic sanctions” for some content.

“Guam is a small market, where some elected officials are business owners or have a family that owns a business that deals with government.

Questionable contracts
“When I was the editor of the now-defunct Marianas Variety, I had encountered many occasions when a certain business owned by the family of the governor pulled out their ads following the publication of a series of stories about questionable contracts entered into by the administration.”

She said that despite the threats, the paper would continue to run important stories.

“Although we rely on advertising revenue to keep going, we refuse to compromise our journalistic integrity and independence.”

However, she said in other jurisdictions of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), the risks of reporting were much greater. There has been at least one case of a journalist being expelled.

In 1997, the FSM government declared Canadian citizen Sherry O’Sullivan persona non grata in response to information about government corruption published in her publication, The FSM News, as reported by Pacific Journalism Review.

The Pacific Daily News took up her case, saying in an editorial that “actions to censor her are misdirected and, instead, end up posing a serious threat to the right of free speech and a free press in the Federated States of Micronesia”.

The following year, the US Department of State released a report criticising the FSM government for stifling investigation into its activities and figures.

Threat ‘unsurprising’
Associate professor of journalism at the University of Guam, Francis Dalisay, said it was not normal for media in the FSM to challenge local elites and power structures. He said it was not surprising that the chiefs in Yap viewed Joyce McClure as a threat.

“The local media in Yap may have a greater tendency to report on issues and matters that are meant to maintain the status quo and tradition.”

Dalisay has published research on the relationship between the mainstream media in Guam and the US military establishment. He found that the local papers often focused on the benefits while neglecting the risks of increased US activity.

Manny Cruz, an indigenous journalist from Guam who is also a doctoral research scholar attached to AUT’s Pacific Media Centre, said that such risks included the confiscation of indigenous land for military use.

He said that because of the islands’ strategic significance for US military operations, it should be at the forefront of global news.

“They’re currently going through a process of military build-up.

“They want to actually bring in more US marines, and they’re building up more federal facilities on indigenous, sacred land.

“This is something that really the entire world should be looking at.”

• World Press Freedom Day is celebrated next Friday – May 3.

Michael Andrew is contributing editor of the Pacific Media Centre’s Pacific Media Watch freedom project.

Manny Cruz talking to Michael Andrew on a recent PMC Southern Cross radio programme.

• ‘Censorship by exile’ in Micronesia
• RSF World Press Freedom Index

The US Defense Department is to report to the US Congress by December 1 on a range of security concerns in the northern Pacific island groups that are affiliated with the US.

The department is reviewing the strategic importance of the Compacts of Free Association for the United States as part of a broad study of security issues related to the freely associated states of Palau, Federated States of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands.

All three nations have long-term treaties with the US that give Washington control of defence and security in an area of the North Pacific the size of the continental US.

The study is also evaluating the implications for American defence and foreign policy interests of China’s economic aid in these island nations.

The Congress directed the Defense Department to address security, defence and foreign policy issues related to the Micronesia area.

Concern over the impact of China in Micronesia is an underlying issue of the study.

China maintains diplomatic ties with the FSM, while Palau and the Marshall Islands are aligned with Taiwan.

This report is published under a content sharing agreement with RNZ Pacific.

• More Micronesian stories

Palau President Tommy Remengesau says Pacific people of Micronesian descent are “dying slowly” because of dietary imbalances on the islands when commenting on a health presentation at the 23rd Micronesia Islands Forum this week.

“Dying a suicidal death that is self-inflicted,” he said.

“It’s sad, but the population around the world are dying because of hunger and poverty – but here in our part of the world we are dying of overeating and bad diet and a lot of this has to do with imported food.”

READ MORE: Micronesian states could work together on labour shortages

Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation chief executive officer Esther Muña identified in a presentation the leading causes of deaths in Micronesia – cancer, diabetes, heart disease, stroke and lung disease.

Remengesau said: “Analysing data, specifically in Palau, unemployed fishermen are in better health than those who are in the government and in the private sector who can afford to buy all these … foods.

“It is certainly a lifestyle.”

Muña called for the forum to pass a resolution that enhanced “telehealth” capabilities in the Pacific.

Telehealth-friendly priority
“Endorse in principle as a matter of regional priority, and to invest jurisdiction resources to enhance and expand telehealth/telemedicine capabilities and capacities appropriate to the needs of each jurisdiction; and support periodic assessments and evaluations of such efforts in terms of cost, sustainable financing, pass policy and legislation which creates a telehealth-friendly environment, and ensure relevant provider/partner coordination,” Muña said in her presentation.

“We are dying slowly.”

The vision and capabilities of enhanced telehealth and telemedicine as an ideal setup for Micronesia was the focus of the second day of the forum.

The forum’s Regional Health Committee touted the benefits of telehealth and telemedicine, citing the concept adopted in some Micronesian islands such as Pohnpei, Kosrae, and Guam.

The committee stressed that an enhanced telehealth and telemedicine capability was ideal for Micronesia, but some governmental policies interfered with telehealth capabilities, limiting its effects in other areas.

Telehealth is the process of using technological advancements in communication to deliver medical services.

Pohnpei Hospital, for example, coordinates with the Hokkaido Cancer Center in Japan for diagnostic information.

Digitised images are sent to the center for diagnosis. Guam Community Health Center, on the other hand, works with the Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles.

Sustainability an issue
However, in an interview after her presentation, Muña said that telehealth issues were concerning.

“It’s not the technology; we already have fiber optic [cables],” she said. “The issue is that we are trying to know that there are layers of policies that are preventing providers from providing those telehealth services.”

According to Muña, sustainability was an issue with telehealth.

According to Muña’s presentation, in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) alone, the body-mass index of youths since the year 2000 baseline had gone up in 2017.

Cancer and cardiovascular-related deaths have also risen in the 30-69 age groups, while lung-related deaths have gone down significantly.

Tobacco usage in both forms—chewing and smoking—have also reportedly decreased since the year 2000 baseline. Similar results have been noted for alcohol use among the youth.

Erwin Encinares is a reporter on the Saipan Tribune who has been covering the 23rd Micronesian island Forum.

• Livestream of the opening day of the 23rd Micronesian Islands Forum

Ambassadors to the United States from the Federated States of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands are seeking information about officer-involved shootings that resulted in the death of citizens from their nations in the US over recent weeks.

FSM Ambassador Akillino Susaia has asked the US State Department for help in accessing information on the shooting deaths of two Micronesians in Tulsa, Oklahoma in early June, while Marshall Islands Ambassador Gerald Zackios is seeking information from the family of Marshall Islander Isaiah Obet, who was shot and killed by police in Auburn, Washington on June 17.

Both ambassadors are based in Washington, DC.

“We have spoken to the Tulsa Police Department and were directed to the Detective Homicide Division, but so far have not received any information or feedback,” Susaia said.

To follow up the shooting deaths on June 2 of Micronesians Naway Willy, 18, and Rabson Robert, 36, Susaia sent a diplomatic note to the State Department last week requesting the federal government’s aid to obtain information from local law enforcement authorities about the incidents.

News reports indicated that Robert had been killed during an argument at a hotel and Willy was initially thought to be a suspect in the murder, but later police said they did not believe Willy was involved and arrested another suspect in Robert’s death.

News reports indicated that Willy was at the scene and fled after the shooting of Robert. Willy was shot and killed by policemen who were called to the scene of the shooting.

Charged with murder
Subsequently Tulio Alexander Aviles, 33, was charged with first-degree murder for the shooting of Robert.

In the diplomatic note, the FSM Embassy notes the “request for assistance is necessitated by the incident that took place on or around 2 June 2017 in Tulsa in which two citizens of the FSM, both of them young men, were reportedly shot to death by local law enforcement officers.”

The ambassador said he was requesting the US State Department’s assistance under the terms of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and the provisions of the Compact of Free Association, a treaty that closely ties the U.S. and the FSM.

The carefully worded request to the State Department also pointed out “the long history of law enforcement cooperation between FSM and the US” under the Compact that was first established in 1986.

“Their (Robert’s and Willy’s) families and friends have sought to obtain information from the Tulsa Police Department but were not successful,” the FSM diplomatic note explained.

“They have turned to the Embassy for assistance.”

The diplomatic note added that the embassy had also been unsuccessful in getting through to the Detective/Homicide Division of the Tulsa Police Department.

The embassy requested State’s help in “facilitating the process to enable the Embassy to obtain relevant information.”

Expressed condolences
Susaia expressed condolences to the families and friends of the victims. He said he did not want to “make specific judgments on the police-involved shootings while all the relevant facts of the case have yet to be confirmed.”

He took the opportunity to “remind us all about the importance of conducting ourselves appropriately to avoid harm and, just as important, for law enforcement authorities to exercise prudence or due diligence in the conduct of their duties and responsibilities to the public.”

While Susaia said the embassy did not speak for the families of the victims or “wish to prejudge the course of action that they may finally decide to pursue, the FSM Embassy will do what is necessary and appropriate. The primary objective of the Embassy is to ensure that justice to our citizens is administered fairly and to assure them and the community at large that we are doing the best we can in the interest of our citizens to the fullest extent provided by the law and Compact.”

While noting that “the Embassy is aware of the rise in police-related incidences in the United States,” Susaia said the FSM is “grateful for the basic decency and fairness of the American people, whom we hope will continue to be the advocates and tireless moral pillars of support for the friendship and historic ties between our peoples that are enshrined in the Compact of Free Association, and which serve as the foundation of the special partnership between the FSM and the US.”

For his part, Marshall Islander Isaiah Obet, 25, was killed in Auburn, Washington while attempting to carjack a vehicle. News reports of the incident said that he went into an Auburn residence holding a knife and demanded money from the woman in the house. She told him to leave and he did, after which she called the emergency number 911.

Police responded to find Obet in another nearby house. He fled and was chased by police and then attempted to carjack a vehicle with two people in it when the officer opened fire, killing the man. News reports said Obet died at the scene from multiple gunshot wounds.

Zackios said he was attempting to get information from Obet’s family in Auburn before taking possible next steps.

Giff Johnson is editor of the Marshall Islands Journal. This article is republished from the Marianas Variety with permission.