PM Sogavare Calls on PIDF Leaders for Ocean-Friendly Decisions

By PM Press – July 15, 2016

The new Chair of the Pacific Islands Development Forum (PIDF), Prime Minister Hon Manasseh Sogavare of Solomon Islands has called on all delegates at the 4th PIDF Leaders’ Summit to make maximum use of the meeting to make decisions that will save the ocean for the good of their countries.

He made the call at the summit opening ceremony at the Lawson Tama Stadium in Honiara this morning.

“Our two-day deliberation on this theme is watched by the peoples and governments that we represent in the region so I therefore urge all of you to make maximum use of the opportunity that we now have to save our ocean for the good of our peoples and thegovernments and countries that we represent.”

The PIDF Chair and Solomon Islands Prime Minister said it is an honour for Solomon Islands to host the summit for the first time and be the first nation to host the annual two-day event apart from Fiji- the home of PIDF.

“It is indeed an honour to host the event in Solomon Islands and Iam glad to say that it is not the first time that we hold a regional high-level meeting of this nature but this one is special to us.

“I say it is special because it is the first time for the PIDF Leaders’ Summit to move out of its home base (Fiji).”

Turning to the theme of the event, the PIDF Chair said this year’s summit focuses on the theme of ‘Stewardship for Healthy Oceans and Healthy Nations.’

“This theme recognises the fact that the health, wealth, history, culture and identity of the peoples’ of the Pacific Islands are vast and diverse.

“This theme underpins the role oceans play to the biological diversity of our people. It reinforces the fact that the geographical vastness of our oceans is immeasurable.

“We cannot deny the fact that we are the oceans people. We live by the ocean and we are big ocean states.

“Furthermore, we can easily co-relate the aspirations of the (United Nations) Sustainable Development Goals to the health and welfare of the ocean that we share amongst us.

“Oceans cover approximately 70.8 percent or 361 million square kilometers of the earth’s surface with a volume of about 1,370 million cubic kilometres. The oceans contain 97 percent of our planets available water. In our Pacific region, we can say that careful management of our ocean is key to our sustainable future,” he added.

He further added that the theme of Stewardship for Healthy Oceans and Healthy Nations is also meant to stimulate the intellectual thinking capacities of leaders present at the summit. “Let us have this intellectual stimulation to save the health of our ocean and safeguard the identity of our nations.

“That said, On behalf of every Solomon Islander, I applaud your stewardship for healthy ocean and healthy nations.

The PIDF Chair and Solomon Islands Prime Minister said the summit is made even more significant by the presence of PIDF’s Charter Members, Foundational Members and Technical Partners as well as regional and international organisations.

“In this regard, amongst others, I would like to acknowledge the presence of representatives of the state of Kuwait, People’s Republic of China, Indonesia, Timor Leste, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Republic of Pakistan, United States of America, Pitcairn Islands and the (French) Territory of Wallis and Futuna.”

The PIDF Chair and Solomon Islands Prime Minister also acknowledged the participation of Solomon Islands nongovernment organisations, civil society groups, Solomon Games’ Participating teams, youth groups and students from schools around Honiara in the opening ceremony.

“The diversity at this stadium is the very nature that makes the PIDF different from other organisations. This is the unique system of the PIDF that we now cherish and shall preserve in the long run.

“On top of this uniqueness, the PIDF also favours gender, social mix and plural thinking as the basis of a new equality in the format of a tripod.”

July 15, 2016 0

New PIDF Chair Dubs 4th PIDF Leaders Summit a Success

By PM Press –July 14, 2016

The Honiara-hosted 4^th Pacific Islands Forum Development Forum Leaders’ Summit concluded yesterday and the new Chair of the organisation, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Hon Manasseh Sogavare described the two-day dialogue as ‘very successful.’

Addressing the Press at the conclusion of the summit late yesterday, Prime Minister Sogavare who has assumed the PIDF Chairmanship for a two-year period said, “ It was a very successful summit. Everything went very well as planned with a number of very important resolutions reached.”

He said the summit started off with pre-summit discussions on various topics of interest to PIDF Member States and concluded with the handing over of the chairmanship from Prime Minister Hon Bainimarama of Fiji to him as well as discussions on the report of the PIDF Secretary-General Mr Martel Francois.

The pre-summit discussions covered the Paris Agreement, which emanated from the United Nations Summit on Climate Change in Paris (COP21), roadmap to COP22 in Marrakesh, Morocco, Harnessing and Guaranteeing Ocean Wealth, Enhancing Collaboration in Achieving the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals and Opportunities for Accessing Climate Change Adaptation Financing.

The PIDF chairmanship handover to the Solomon Islands Prime Minister from his Fiji counterpart- the first time for another PIDF Member State apart from Fiji to take on this role- will see the incumbent serve for a two-year term.

The report by the PIDF Secretary-General covered PIDF’s Budget and Work Programme for 2017, Regional Development Trust Fund, Roadmap for Climate Change, Proposal for a Pacific Climate Treaty, Resolution for the Observance of the Pacific Year of Ocean 2017, PIDF Blue Economy Conference in 2017, PIDF role in UN Conference on Oceans and Seas, PIDF Contribution to the Climate Induced Migration Summit and the IMO- European Union Project on Capacity Building for Climate Change Mitigation in the Maritime Shipping Sector.

“As you know the Pacific Islands Development forum is made up of small developing island states and is a very inclusive organisation and therefore the summit was very much focused on getting our collective voice on global issues affecting us.

“ We acknowledge that because of our smallness, we can only make an influence on decisions on global issues that affect us if we have a collective stand and I think we have improved on that. The outcome of the Paris Agreement for example- the number of positions that were put forward by our small island developing states leading on from the climate change heavily focused Suva Declaration (this declaration emanated from the third PIDF Leaders’ Summit held in Suva, Fiji in 2015).

“A number of issues that were raised by leaders at that forum are reflected in the Paris Agreement. What is left now is the implementation of that agreement which we leaders see as a huge challenge but once again there is that collective approach because of our smallness.

“The achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for example, while we appreciate that the prime responsibility to ensure these goals are achieved rests with member countries to streamline our various targets and goals to develop economical strategies, the need for a collective voice on decisions on very important issues affecting us underpins the importance of the PIDF.”

The resolutions reached at the 4^th summit will be developed into a declaration called the Honiara Declaration, which will be released in due course.

The Secretary-General Mr Francois in turn thanked the Solomon Islands Government for hosting the summit, adding that it was quite special as it was the first to be held outside of Fiji since the inception of PIDF in 2013 and enforcement of the PIDF Charter during the third Leaders’ Summit in Suva, Fiji, 10-months ago.

He said the decision to start hosting the annual summit outside of Fiji shows the spirit of inclusivity the PIDF wants to instil in its members.

“We owe the gratitude for Solomon Islands to take on that challenging role. Prime Minister Sogavare has taken upon himself quite a challenge because we are talking about two years of chairmanship, which means two Leaders’ Summits, four Members of the Representative Council Meetings and hopefully the 2017 Blue Economy Summit,”

Mr Francois added.

The PIDF Secretary-General said the PIDF Leaders at this year’s summit focused not only on the PIDF organisational structure but also discussions reflecting on the oceans and the key issues that will happen in 2016 and 2017.

He said the summit also focused on the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the roadmap of the PIDF to the upcoming UN Climate Change Summit (COP22) in Marrakesh, Morocco.

“You know we were all excited that the Paris Agreement was signed though it has not been fully ratified yet. But there is a lot of excitement about what could be done but there are also a lot of difficulties in ensuring that we are not trying to rewrite the Paris Agreement.

“COP22 is not about refining the Paris Agreement. It’s rather about putting in place modalities for its implementation and the Pacific still has a very key role to play in ensuring that we continue the leadership role that we took in Paris, France and that is evident by the work that leaders did in the shaping of the Suva Declaration.”

July 14, 2016 0

Pacific appeal to the world’s conscience: West Papua Supports Fiji PM’s Speech at PIDF Summit

Pacific appeal to the world’s conscience is the theme that all Melanesian leaders should agree and promote. From West Papua, sharing with Papua New Guinea as the Second Largest Island on Earth, supports the efforts on limiting (global) temperature rise to 1.5 Degrees Centigrade as stated in ‘Suva Declaration on Climate Change’ which became a Pacific appeal to the world’s conscience.

From the Office of Gen. TRWP Mathias Wenda, as the Commander in Chief of the West Papua Revolutionary Army (WPRA), the Secretary-General Lt. Gen. Amunggut Tabi says,

West Papua issue is not just about human rights and security, regional stability and peace, it is more about out Melanesian future, the future of the South Pacific. We need to question ‘Where will we go, what are we Melanesians going to do when the sea level arises, when Western half of our Melaneisan-Island (New Guinea) is already occupied and taken over by Malayo-Indonesia?‘ and we need to be clever, speak for our own future generations. We have our independent nation-states, but our small-island states are under threat of global warming. We need to secure the Isle of New Guinea as our Island for our future generations.

Gen. Tabi also reiterates Gen. Wenda’s message that nobody from out there will become our day-time or night-time or morning-time saviors. We must stand-up for ourselves and for our future generations, and we must stand up together, united as One Melanesian Family, under the umbrella of the ‘Pacific Islands Development Forum (PIDF)’. Gen. Tabi continues,

We cannot wait, and if we do, there will never be anybody from heavens or earth come to Melanesia to speak on our behalf and on behalf of our future generations. It is our own, primary duty as the parents to begin thinking and acting upon the call for world conscience.

This is why, the Draft Constitution of the Republic of West Papua says the primary goal of West Papua independence is not economic, social nor political one, but it is environmental, holistic one for the sake of Papuans and Melanesians as human society with all other beings that share our islands, waters and skies.

The two WPRA generals also calls on all Melanesian leaders to think more based on Melanesian Wisdom, Melanesian Philosophy and Melanesian Way of Dealing with life issues. They said,

We are rigt now dragged into thinking, talking and acting more for the sake of economic goals. We are dragged into the global modernisation project that sacrifices our own way of living, way of thinking and way of doing things for our own survival and progress.

With the statement of the Fiji Prime Minister, Gen. Tabi expresses his gratitude, on behalf of West Papuan peoples and all communities of beings in the Isle of New Guinea, that this Melanesian wisdom should be fully supported by all Melanesian leaders, be guarded and promoted, not only for our Melanesia future, but also for the sake of life on this planet. Tabi says, Fiji Prime Minister already said we should,

“be an example for the world. Ironically, our efforts and our leadership will not just be for our benefit in the future, they will be for the benefit for the entire planet.”

July 13, 2016 0