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Facing the prospect of rising sea levels swallowing their homes, many Pacific leaders and scholars are preparing for the worst, Eliorah Malifa writes for the Pacific Wayfinder series. “We are not drowning, we are fighting.” With the release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest report, the world is beginning to grapple with the implications of…

The Fijian Government has refused to impose a lockdown despite exploding case numbers, whilst Palau has announced that it has achieved the vaccination rate necessary for herd immunity, Hugh McClure writes. With 37,582 cases of COVID-19 and 317 deaths, Fiji has overtaken Australia to become the Pacific Island Forum member country with the highest number…

Despite claims of a Pacific ‘Step-up’ and ‘Reset’, very little has changed in Australia and New Zealand’s attitude to the region, former Secretary of Papua New Guinea’s Department of Foreign Affairs Leonard Louma writes. I have been pondering the ways Pacific countries can work with their traditional development partners, particularly Australia and New Zealand, in…

AFP 2021 is proving a more difficult pandemic year for the Pacific Island region than last year, emphasising the need for need more vaccines and long-term health infrastructure, Hugh McClure writes. Australia’s vaccine diplomacy in the Pacific Island region reached a major milestone, with news that the country has now delivered one million vaccines. Zed…

Papua New Guinea and Fiji are facing large budget deficits in the wake of COVID-19, while Australia is set to surpass one million vaccines delivered to the Pacific, Hugh McClure writes. There are now more than 17,000 active COVID-19 cases in isolation in Fiji, after the country recorded its worst day of the pandemic to-date, with…

William West / AFP Pacific island nations are increasingly paying the price for the high-value drug markets of Australia and New Zealand. Jose Sousa-Santos writes that transnational crime is increasing in the region and more co-operation is needed to combat it. In 2018 I was sitting at a large table in a meeting room in…