Category Archives: Pacific leaders: in their words

New Vanuatu PM says he will ‘revisit’ 2022 security agreement with Australia

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Exclusive: Jotham Napat said pact must be taken ‘back to the drawing board’ and should reflect climate change as security issue

Vanuatu’s new prime minister has said his government intends to “revisit” a security agreement with Australia, arguing it does not reflect his country’s priorities including climate change and travel mobility for its citizens.

Jotham Napat, who was elected in February, said the pact with Canberra had to be taken “back to the drawing board” as he sought a “win-win situation” in a renegotiated deal.

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Leaders in the Pacific raise alarm over ‘direct impact’ of Trump’s climate retreat and aid freeze

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Samoa’s prime minister says US withdrawal from Paris climate agreement is ‘very disappointing’ and puts the survival of Pacific countries at greater risk

Leaders and environmental advocates in the Pacific have expressed alarm over Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement and freeze foreign aid, warning the moves will accelerate the existential threats they face as nations on the frontlines of the climate crisis.

The Paris agreement is the world’s main effort to address the impacts of the climate crisis. Trump has called it “unfair” and a “rip off”.

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Pacific island governor backs $800m US military upgrade amid China threat

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Northern Mariana Islands governor says ‘the world is changing in the Indo-Pacific’ as work continues in the US territory on defense development

The governor of the Northern Mariana Islands says an $800m US military upgrade plan which includes a new airfield in the Pacific territory “has to happen” amid concern over China’s recent missile tests in the region.

Tinian, home to about 3,500 people, is one of the three main islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, an unincorporated US territory. During the second world war, the US launched a nuclear bomb against Japan from Tinian, and now a major rehabilitation of a deserted airfield and other military upgrades are under way on the island.

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Micronesia president says US beefing up military capabilities in the Pacific country

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Wesley Simina says the US is ‘well advanced’ in plans for $400m airport upgrade in Yap, amid rising tensions with China in the region

The US is considering military projects across the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) as it pushes ahead with plans for a $400m airport upgrade in the country to boost defence capabilities in the Pacific, President Wesley Simina said.

The region is of growing strategic importance to the US amid a battle for influence with China.

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