Pacific Islands Forum

The issue will likely dominate this week’s Pacific Islands Forum leaders’ summit in Port Moresby, ahead of the United Nations climate change conference in Paris later in the year.

Pacific leaders want the world to work on restricting the global warming temperature rise to 1.5C, fearing a 2C target will risk the survival of many tiny islands.

Natural disaster recovery will be fresh on their minds. The summit starts on Monday, six months after Cyclone Pam, which flattened much of Vanuatu and caused heavy flooding on Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Marshall Islands.

Port Moresby is hosting the Pacific Islands Forum leaders summit from Monday and Rimbink Pato says PNG is ready to take on a strong leadership role on shared development, social, economic and environmental challenges.

“In order for regionalism to work properly the leaders will hold frank discussions about pooling sovereignty, sharing resources and agreeing upon regional practices,” Pato told reporters in Port Moresby on Friday.

Topics on discussion for the Pacific Island Forum leaders’ summit are;

1.            Increase return from fisheries and maritime surveillance

2.            Climate risk and disaster risk management

3.            Information and communication technology

4.            West Papua

5.            Cervical cancer  

The Pacific Ocean is the largest in the world and accounts for three thirds of the world’s tuna stock but this does not translate into revenue.

Forging agreement between Australia, New Zealand and fourteen small island developing states inevitably involves compromises, and Forum communiques have often used bland wording to placate the sensibilities of Australian and New Zealand prime ministers on trade, decolonisation and nuclear testing. The fact that Canberra and Wellington fund much of the Forum’s budget has played no small part in this diplomatic balancing act.

Speaking during a press conference held after the meeting PM Sogavare thanked everyone who turned up for the high level talk, while warmly welcoming the presence of the New Zealand delegation into the country.

Sogavare reiterated on the historical friendship of both countries, which has been in existence for 37 years now since Solomon Islands gained independence.

A Fiji Government delegation attended the Forum's Officials Committee meeting which has been setting the agenda for the leaders' summit next month in Papua New Guinea.

Fiji was suspended from the Forum in 2009 for refusing to return to democracy.

Last year it was re-admitted after the elections but the Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama has been stressing he will not attend the summit in Port Moresby.

FBC News reports the roving Pacific Ambassador Litia Mawi saying the re-engagement is strategic to ensure Fiji's position on regional issues is heard.

They will urge governments to take leadership and to allocate adequate resources to combat the increasing burden of the cancer in the region.

Forum officials have put the matter forward as one of the five priority issues for discussion in the September summit.

The Internation Agency for Research on Cancer says some Melanesian countries have incidence levels among the highest in the world.

The death rate from cervical cancer in Papua New Guinea is 12 times that in Australia