Pacific Waves for 4 July 2025
To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following:
See terms of use.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
3 days ago
- RNZ News
Fijian PM Rabuka's 'ocean of peace' proposal set for approval at Pacific leaders' summit
Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka first introduced the concept at the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) in Rarotonga in 2023. Photo: Fiji Government Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka's 'Ocean of Peace' initiative is slated for approval at the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting in Honiara next month. Rabuka first introduced the concept at the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) in Rarotonga in 2023. He proposed that Pacific leaders agree on a set of principles that "embed peace as the cornerstone of our individual and collective policies". He told the Fijian parliament in August last year that the initiative was "both an inspiration and a pathway to a regional arrangement crafted by the states of the Pacific region by other powers." Marshall Islands' Foreign Minister Gerald Zackios told RNZ Pacific on the sidelines of the PIF Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Suva on Thursday that Rabuka's proposal had passed the second to last hurdle before leaders consideration in Solomon Islands. "We just need to make sure that we address the key important issues for all of us, what peace translates to. Peace can be only achieved when we have economic sustainab[ility], as well as addressing the safety and security of our people. He confirmed Pacific foreign ministers have recommended the inclusion of the proposal in PIF Leaders Meeting agenda next month. "All of us have agreed that we endorse it [and] for it to move forward." The outcomes from the PIF Foreign Ministers' Meeting is yet to be released. Zackios said that, for the Marshall Islands, nuclear legacy issues remain top of mind. This year, the Marshall Islands marked 71 years since the most powerful nuclear weapons tests ever conducted were unleashed. 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. "We have now the opportunity, through the mechanisms that we discussed this morning to progress that," Zackios said. "We hope that their inclusion, for example, in the Ocean of Peace concept that we're very grateful that it's been included into that consideration. "But we need to become better are, but we need to be a little bit more collective in moving the issues forward. We need to come with one voice as we discuss these issues, not only regional, but globally." Zackios added the region can always do better. "We need to to combat and restrengthen our collectiveness in working towards regionalism." Responding to a question regarding donor partners being blocked from participating in Honiara in three weeks' time, he said: "There should be space for leaders to discuss our political priorities, and after that, then to share those priorities with all our relationships." "It shouldn't exclude any one of our relationships. We can only learn from what happens if it doesn't take place."
RNZ News
4 days ago
- RNZ News
Manele wins: Door shut on Pacific Islands Forum partners in Honiara
Jeremiah Manele becomes the 19th Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands. Photo: AFP / RNZ Pacific Solomon Islands Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele's proposal not to invite the likes of the US, China and Taiwan to Honiara next month has been approved at the Foreign Minister's Meeting (FFMM) in Fiji. While the move was met with support from Palau and Samoa, Fiji, Australia and New Zealand voiced opposition. New Zealand's foreign minister blamed outsiders for causing disagreements within the Pacific Islands Forum. However, Pacific Islands Forum deputy secretary general, Esala Nayasi, told the media, "discussions were cordial". "There was assurance on the importance of relationships," Nayasi added. More to come...
RNZ News
4 days ago
- RNZ News
Winston Peters blames 'outsiders' for Pacific Islands Forum tensions
Photo: RNZ/Teuila Fuatai New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters is blaming "outsiders" for causing disagreements within the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF). "Outsiders are now telling us who we can have as guests. That's not the Pacific way and if you dissect every Pacific Islands population, they will not like that," Peters, who is attending the PIF Foreign Ministers Meeting in Suva, said. Solomon Islands Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele has proposed that the Forum defer the annual dialogue partner meeting when leaders meet at the regional summit in Honiara. The move will essentially block at least twenty countries from participating at the key Pacific meeting in just over three weeks' time. It includes countries like the US and China, which will not participate until next year's summit in Palau. Solomon Islands and China have close diplomatic relations, signing a security agreement in 2022. The country has faced criticism for deciding to can the dialogue partners component after its plans to keep Taiwan out of the annual meeting. However, Manele has dismissed the idea that China-Taiwan tensions are to blame. Peters said the last split in 2021 was an "internal squabble" of PIF nations' "own making". "We hardly got that sorted out now, we've got outsiders causing a split and that's worse. "We've got to make sure that every outsider comes here with respect for us, of us who are inside the organisation." Pacific leaders disagree over the proposal to defer the dialogue and development partners. Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr, whose country has diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Samoa's caretaker Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata'afa both back the Solomon Islands' decision. Fiame has made a U-turn after initially telling the ABC that she would boycott the meeting over this issue. Fiji's Prime Minister, on the other hand, has warned that such a move would threaten regional unity. Peters said the statement from Manele came out of left field. "'Well, yes, you might give us aid, but you can't come to our meeting as an observer', [but] this is not going be very helpful. It's our job to try and sort out this as fast as we can." Peters said the most important thing was to ensure outsiders' priorities do not override the region's interests. "Our job is to ensure that the collective beneficial interests of the Pacific Island countries in this forum prevail and are not pulled apart."
