UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is attending a Pacific summit in Tonga this week, where he is due to focus on climate change in the region, one of the areas most vulnerable to rising sea levels and changing temperatures.
The summit is the highest political decision-making body in the region. The week-long summit culminates in a leaders’ retreat where key decisions are taken. It has endorsed an Australian-backed regional policing initiative.New Caledonia’s future is one of the key issues to be discussed at the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), due to begin in Tonga on Monday.
The leaders of the forum’s two largest economies, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, are due to attend, along with most government leaders from the 18-nation regional bloc.
As geopolitical tensions rise and competition for influence in the Pacific intensifies, outside attention is turning to some of the world’s smallest countries. The threats posed by climate change and rising sea levels will be a central theme of the summit, which Secretary-General Guterres will discuss, and Pacific leaders are expected to call for greater funding for climate and disaster response..
“The fate of the Pacific Ocean depends on limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees,” the UN Secretary-General said. Press conference in Samoa on Friday ahead of a meeting in Tonga.
“This region, the Pacific, accounts for 0.02 percent of global emissions. And yet you are on the front lines of the climate crisis, dealing with extreme weather events, from intense tropical storms to record-breaking marine heatwaves.”
The situation in New Caledonia is also likely to be a focus of the meeting. The French territory Deadly violence this year Over Paris plans to expand voting rights, the New Caledonian government has decided to postpone a high-level visit to New Caledonia by Pacific leaders. A high-level visit to New Caledonia by Pacific leaders was postponed this week at the request of New Caledonian President Louis Mapou.
Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown, outgoing PIF chairman, said at a recent press conference that the PIF was struggling to navigate the implications of New Caledonia’s dual status as both a full member of the forum and a French territory. The turmoil led to the territory being added to the summit agenda as a “standing item,” reflecting the region’s importance to regional leaders.
In recent years, the meeting has gained increasing attention amid the US-China contest for geopolitical influence in the region. As Beijing expands its influence in the Pacific and strengthens economic and security ties, the US has stepped up engagement on many fronts. Washington has pledged more aid, forged security partnerships and opened new embassies. Pacific nations have seen a flurry of ministerial visits from both sides, new engagements in various fields and an intensification of defence diplomacy.
Fiji’s Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka visited the Philippine archipelago shortly after his visit to Beijing to discuss ways to develop the economy and strengthen ties, while the leaders of Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands visited China in July.
While PIF member states agree on many key priorities, maintaining regional unity can be difficult. Political divisions over deep-sea mining became evident in the Cook Islands last year. Since then, Vanuatu has led the charge at a recent meeting of the International Seabed Authority to prevent licenses from being issued for seabed resource development before environmental regulations are in place. Last year, Pacific leaders asked the forum secretariat to convene a regional conference. Talanoa There has been no discussion on this issue yet.
