Page 17 - IB September 2018 Edition

Politics

bilateral consultations and press conferences also places pressure presentations by the Office of the Pacific Oceans Commissioner,
on the leaders and key Forum staff, as they rush from meeting proposals for an annual Regional Fisheries Ministers meeting
to meeting. After the Smaller Island States meeting this week, and a communique provision calling for “securing the region’s
SIS leaders formally noted the “increasing complexities of the maritime boundaries as a key issue for the development and
geopolitical environment as well as the increasing interest of security of our region.”
traditional and non-traditional partners in the Blue Pacific and Community health and development also raised concern, with
called for the need to be provided the space and time to be able an increasing incidence of childhood obesity in the region. Leaders
to discuss issues and priorities of shared importance.” met with NGOs to discuss programmes for sports and develop-
On the evening of the second day of the Forum, President Waqa ment and “expressed their grave concern with the increasing
exploded at the media for their supposed fixation on asylum incidence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), noting that
seekers and refugees in Nauru, rather than the broader Forum NCDs now represents the leading cause of premature deaths in
agenda. It came at the end of a very long day where he’d had the our region.”
United States intransigence for breakfast, Chinese rudeness for As France seeks to improve its regional relationship, another
morning tea and the detention by Nauru police of a New Zealand French Pacific dependency upgraded its status within the organi-
journalist for afternoon tea. At the press conference, as journal- sation. Following the 2016 decision to include French Polynesia
ists argued for the rights of Pacific media workers and the issue and New Caledonia as full Forum members, this meeting endorsed
of refugees as a regional concern, we were clearly keeping him the admission of Wallis and Futuna as an Associate Member. The
from his dinner! small Polynesia territory has been a Forum observer since 2006.
These problems may lead to changes in the structure of the New Caledonia will hold a referendum on self-determination
meeting, such as the idea of shifting the Forum Dialogue Partners on 4 November, but the issue was not high on this week’s pro-
meeting to the new Forum Foreign Ministers Meeting. In the gramme – a fundamental change from past decades, when the
final communique, the Forum Secretariat was directed to “work Kanak independence struggle, French colonialism and nuclear
with the Forum Troika (Samoa, Nauru and Tuvalu) to review the testing dominated the regional agenda. Now, France is an increas-
guidelines and format of the Pacific Islands Forum Meetings” and ingly significant partner – especially on climate change – and the
report back to leaders. Forum welcomed an invitation from Paris for a Forum Ministerial
The Forum communique also outlined a new schedule of in- Committee Mission to monitor the New Caledonia referendum,
creased member financial contributions, to ensure the Secretariat under the auspices of the United Nations.
can keep pace with its growing agenda, but also slowly increase Tuvalu will host next year’s Forum leaders meeting, followed
the independence of decision making from donor pressure. by Vanuatu in 2020 (the 40th anniversary of the Melanesian
nation’s accession to independence in 1980).
Broader agenda
The oceans agenda was central to the week’s activities, with nicmac3056@gmail.com

qualifications, is ‘A’, capital A.” contaminated by radiation, after the United States con-
Looking at the list of Forum members, you quickly find that ducted 67 atomic and hydrogen bomb tests in her country.
the country that begins with the letter A is the largest Forum At the Nauru Forum, she highlighted sites like Runit Island
member, which is one of the world’s largest coal exporters. at Enewetak Atoll, where nuclear waste is leaking into the
Forum Secretary General Dame Meg Taylor noted: “Pacific marine environment.
countries are very committed to the Paris Agreement and on SIS leaders agreed that the issue of radioactive con-
the temperatures of 1.5 and below, it is paramount for the taminants will be a standalone agenda item of their future
survival of the Pacific. The Australian government we would meetings, a decision echoed by Forum Secretary General
hope would understand this. It’s part of the Paris Agreement Dame Meg Taylor: “The concerns that are raised by con-
that they fulfil those commitments.” tamination caused by nuclear leakages in the region, such
Forum leaders also recognised the growing support from as concerns about what’s happened with the leaking of the
member countries – once again excepting Australia – for the Runit Dome - these are very real concerns.”
new Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Unlike its ANZUS ally Australia, New Zealand has signed
The Forum communique welcomes the ratification of the and ratified the new nuclear ban treaty. Attending her first
nuclear ban treaty by Cook Islands, Palau and Vanuatu. It leaders’ meeting, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ar-
“encouraged individual member countries to progress efforts,” dern said that the issue of nuclear contamination was tied
with more leaders likely to sign when they travel to New York to the region’s broader climate agenda: “Certainly this is
later this month for the opening of the next UN General As- another area where climate change is having its effect, on
sembly session. the ability to seal off some of that contamination affected
The Treaty includes unprecedented provisions on assistance by rising sea levels. So there is a link there to the issue the
for the survivors of nuclear testing, a key concern for Forum Marshall Islands has raised.”
members like Australia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands and French With Nauru’s President Baron Waqa serving as Forum
Polynesia, whose land and waters were used for nuclear test- chair in 2018-19, the SIS agenda will get good backing. The
ing by the United States, Britain and France. SIS leaders will also have home ground advantage again
Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine has been outspoken in 2019-20, as Tuvalu hosts next year’s Pacific Islands
on the need for further clean up and compensation of areas Forum.

Islands Business, September 2018 17