Features

Many have speculated why Nauru shifted allegiances again, as it did between 2002 and 2005. Without a doubt there were sweeteners. That’s politics. The timing of Nauru’s switch appears deliberately designed to take the wind out of Taiwan’s sails after the pro-sovereignty presidential election result.

Nauru’s Diplomatic Switch to China – the Rising Stakes in Pacific Geopolitics

Nauru’s decision to switch diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China has nothing to do with Australia. It reflects the intense geopolitical competition in the Pacific and the sustained, but not always visible, push from China to erode diplomatic support for Taiwan and further isolate the country.
Like other like-minded commentators in Solomon Islands, Celsius Talifilu—a former public servant and political advisor to the former premier of Malaita province—observes that there is “too much unexplained wealth with many of those who hold higher echelons of power in the country.”

'Unexplained Wealth’ in the Solomons and the Need to Explain?

In Paraguay in 2015, in his meeting with Paraguay’s civil society, Pope Francis of the Roman Catholic Church described corruption as the “gangrene of a people”.
The vote yesterday in the Senate marked a very big step forward towards the introduction of a historic and potentially transformational Pacific window into Australia’s permanent migration regime.

Pacific Engagement Visa Legislation Finally Through

After months of uncertainty, yesterday the legislation required to implement the Pacific Engagement Visa (PEV) passed through the Australian Senate, with the Greens and other crossbenchers providing the numbers the government needed in the face of opposition from the Coalition.
The Catholic Archbishop of Fiji, Archbishop Peter Loy Chong.

Why the Catholic Archbishop of Fiji is Wrong to Condemn Seasonal Work

In a recent Fiji Times opinion piece ‘The dark side of seasonal work’ (16 September 2023), the Catholic Archbishop of Fiji, Peter Loy Chong, made a number of general, emotive and false claims about seasonal workers.
Existing forms of community-based order maintenance struggle to manage newer kinds of disputation and discord, with traditional authority and leadership seriously weakened in many places.

Order-making in the shadow of the law: community by-laws in Solomon Islands

It’s been ten years since the publication of the Justice Delivered Locally (JDL) in Solomon Islands research, documenting justice experiences in rural communities across five of the country’s nine provinces.
SIEOTEC workers conducting a UXO Clearance exercise on Lot 1 of the Tina River Hydropower Development Project (TRHDP) site.

SIEOTEC Ensures Tina Construction Area is UXO Free

The commencement of construction activities at the Tina River Hydropower Development Project (TRHDP) site would not have been possible without local company, Solomon Islands Explosive Ordnance Technicians (SIEOTEC), who have been responsible for the clearance of Unexploded Ordinances (UXOs) from World War 2 (WWII) within the project zone.
PM Manasseh Sogavare with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a recent visit to Beijing.

Geopolitical Competition and Solomon Islands: Navigating the Middle Ground

Geopolitical competition can have adverse impact on third-party countries. We are seeing this in Solomon Islands, where domestic political discourses – at least in Honiara and on social media – are dominated by the country’s relationships with China and the US and its allies. These are characterised by divergent opinions that have caused divisions
Participants during ongoing GBV training initiative under SIRAP.

Solomon Islands Roads and Aviation Project (SIRAP) Working to Address Gender Based Violence

Gender Based Violence (GBV) prevalence is a key concern within communities that the Solomon Islands Roads and Aviation Project (SIRAP) is working in.
Commonwealth Secretary-General, the Rt Hon Patricia Scotland KC, President of Rawanda, Hon. Paul Kagame, and Hon. Fiame Naomi Mata'afa, Prime Minister of Samoa during CHOGM in Rawanda.

Commonwealth Heads of Government to meet in Samoa in 2024

The Prime Minister of Samoa, Hon. Fiame Naomi Mata'afa, and the Commonwealth Secretary-General, the Rt Hon Patricia Scotland KC, have announced that the next Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) will be held in Apia, Samoa, beginning on 21 October 2024.
French President said on Friday it wanted to give “political impetus” to the idea of an international tax on carbon emissions from shipping, with hopes of a breakthrough at a meeting of the International Maritime Organisation later in June.

Paris Summit Will Look At Creative Ways to Finance Global Targets Shaped by Climate Change

World leaders will gather in Paris this week with ambitions to reimagine global financing for a new era shaped by climate change, as a cascade of crises swamps debt-burdened countries.