'Clear actions' mark the end of the 54th Pacific Islands Forum

 

The Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) wrapped up its annual Leaders' Week in Honiara by agreeing on "clear actions" that will guide the region "through an increasingly complex and challenging strategic environment".

This was the message from Solomon Islands Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele as he declared the "successful conclusion" of the 54th edition of the meeting on Friday.

Manele declared that "milestones were reached" during the week-long gathering, including launch of the Pacific's own financing facility, the endorsement of the Blue Pacific Ocean of Peace Declaration, the endorsement of a leaders' policy on partnerships, and the Forum's engagement with the United States.

"One message was certain this week and that was: act now. In terms of way forward, we achieved a mammoth task," he said.

Read the final communiqué of the 54th Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting

Regional architecture review

The review of the regional architecture - designed to respond to increasing interest in the region - was not endorsed.

The final communiqué said it was agreed to progress the recommendations in line with the leaders' discussions, which would be conveyed by the Forum chair and Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manele.

A footnote on the review of the regional architecture said Nauru "disassociates itself with the Review of Regional Architecture section in entirety".

Nauru's President David Adeang did not attend the meeting and the country was represented at the meeting at the ministerial level.

Ahead of the meeting, Manele announced all Pacific leaders would be there apart from Samoa's due to the election.

In 2023, Adeang ditched the summit in the Cook Islands abruptly by flying back to Nauru in a private jet. Adeang departed Rarotonga just 24 hours after he walked out of a plenary meeting.

Pacific Resilience Facility

After ten years in the making, the Pacific Resilience Facility (PRF) was signed and ratified by the leaders.

The PRF is the Pacific's response to the frustration of accessing climate finance. Instead of competing with the rest of the world for money via the Green Climate Fund and other mechanisms, money should be able to be pulled for community reliance projects using the region's own facility.

It is the first time a PIF treaty has been signed in 40 years, the last one being the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty, also known as the Rarotonga Treaty, signed in August 1985 in the Cook Islands.

Manele said the fund is the region's desire to reduce dependency and vulnerability.

"The structural barriers for our small island nations in accessing global climate financing, is still too slow, too little, too complex and unpredictable," he said during the signing.

"We are finally establishing our first international financial institution owned by the Pacific Islands Forum Fund."

So far, US$162 million has been pledged - which mostly still needs to be paid - with the goal of reaching $500m by the end of 2026.

Ocean of Peace Declaration

Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka's brainchild, the Ocean of Peace initiative, was endorsed.

Rabuka said it was about "peaceful existence, sustainable living, peace of mind".

"Countries will continue to have meaningful engagement with others without destroying the harmony of the coexistence of the Pacific communities and also hopefully they will not try and use Pacific states as pawns in their strategic manoeuvres in the Pacific."

At the signing event, Rabuka said the world now knows that Pasifika people "mean business".

"It starts here, with us. The ocean of peace declaration reflects each of us and, collectively, as a region."

Cook Islands Foreign Minister Tingika Elikana, during a side event, said geopolitical pressure was not a problem the region had created but came from outside parties.

Elikana said the Pacific had composed "hymns" - referring to issues that are important to the Pacific - but other countries were not listening.

"The difficulties are when we take these hymns to sing with other partners, while we are singing according to the hymn that we composed, they seem to be singing a different tune, and that's where the hymn doesn't sound nice," Elikana said.

"Our partners are bringing their different songs and not trying to learn our songs."

Elikana used the example of the Cook Islands working with China, which has been met with disapproval from Wellington.

He said his country was working with "one partner" to help with infrastructure, "another partner came and said, 'oh, that is not for maritime expansion, but for military expansion'."

Promises to visit West Papua

Pacific leaders have made more promises to address Indonesia's West Papua issues.

Leaders reaffirmed the Forum's ongoing recognition of Indonesia's sovereignty over West Papua (Papua) in the final communiqué at the same time as "recalling" Indonesia's 2018 invitation for a mission led by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Leaders have tasked the PIF Secretariat to work constructively with Indonesia on a proposed visit by forum leaders' envoys in 2026, in consultation with the Melanesian Spearhead Group Secretariat.

RNZ Pacific asked Rabuka if he still planned to go, in response he said, "no, I will have to rethink that".

"We're looking at the Melanesian solidarity with the people of West Papua, as well as respecting sovereignties of states," he said.

"I visited Indonesia earlier this year and saw that there was a member of the cabinet who was a Papuan. So they are integrated, as far as Indonesia is concerned, but perhaps the leaders in West Papua think otherwise."

He said continued dialogue would be the way forward.

  New Caledonia issue

The president of the collegial government of New Caledonia told RNZ Pacific that "meddling in the French territories' domestic political affairs" is not welcome.

Alcide Ponga said New Caledonia's political future is "not a Pacific problem".

But a Pacific geopolitics academic said New Caledonia's political future is very much a Pacific issue.

"You only have to look at forum communiqués over the past several decades to see that Kanaky New Caledonia is consistently included in communiqués that come out of the leaders' meeting," Massey University associate professor Anna Powles said.

"So this is very much seen as a Pacific issue."

The 2025 communiqué states that "political processes in New Caledonia are at a critical juncture."

It states leaders have reaffirmed the Forum's ongoing support for New Caledonia.

Taiwan's place

Leaders have put Taiwan back on the Pacific Islands Forum communiqué after it was removed following pressure from China last year.

This year's 54th Pacific Islands Forum communiqué said leaders maintain "the 1992 Leaders decision on Development Partners", a reference to Taiwan and the year it became a development partner.

Last year, China's ambassador to the Pacific was furious after the PIF Secretariat released the final communiqué, which included a section that said: "Leaders reaffirmed the 1992 Leaders decision on relations with Taiwan/Republic of China."

The Forum then tweaked the final communiqué to remove the Taiwan reference.

Last month, a statement from the Chinese Embassy in Tonga said, "it is now time to correct the erroneous Taiwan-related content in the 1992 Forum Communiqué".

"Taiwan-related content in the 1992 Forum Communiqué violated the one-China principle in the first place," it said.

PIF secretary-general Baron Waqa said there's "no particular concern on anyone's part" to remove the 1992 decision.

"We don't have to go into any detail or highlight any aspect of it, but all leaders acknowledge that and it's there."

Taiwan place at the Forum continues to be a sticking point ahead of, during and after every PIF Leaders' Meeting.

The number of Pacific countries recognising Taiwan has halved since 2019, with the remaining being Palau, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands.