Pacific island summit to focus on climate, economy
Date: 14-Aug-02
Country: AUSTRALIA
Author: Paul Tait
The 16-nation Pacific Islands Forum is meeting in Fiji and members ranging from regional powerhouse Australia to the specks of Tuvalu and Niue, population 1,748.
Tuvalu, at risk of sinking beneath Pacific waves, said in March it was considering David and Goliath legal battles against the United States and Australia for refusing to ratify the 1997 Kyoto protocol on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
Analysts fear that the small size, poverty and instability of some forum members have made it hard for them to find one voice to address important issues like climate change and economic opportunities.
"I think what's been lacking has been any firm political leadership for the last five or six years and I think that's to do with everyone being so busy at home with local conflicts," said Greg Fry, professor of South Pacific and Australian relations at the Australian National University (ANU).
Of the 16 forum members, the Cook Islands, Fiji, Niue, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Tuvalu have all undergone leadership changes since the last meeting.
UNITY IN DISSENT
But members seem united in their growing anger against what they see is an arrogant and bullying Australia.
Canberra angered many in the region last year with its "Pacific solution" of closing its doors to unwanted illegal immigrants. Instead, it paid Pacific neighbours to accept and process their asylum claims.
The policy proved popular at home and helped conservative Prime Minister John Howard win re-election but Vanuatu leader Edward Natapei labelled it a bullying "Big Brother" tactic.
Australia annoyed its neighbours again by deciding to nominate one of its top diplomats as a candidate to replace Papua New Guinea's Noel Levi as secretary general of the forum, a job that has traditionally been held by Pacific islanders.
Canberra, a major aid donor, wields considerable influence in the region.
Total Australian aid for the Pacific region will total A$516.4 million (US$278.9 million) in the 2002/03 financial year, with Papua New Guinea alone receiving A$351.4 million. Canberra also pays a third of the Pacific forum secretariat's budget.
"There are a number of things now where there is a big divide between Australia and the Pacific islands," Fry said on Monday.
EUROPEAN TRADE CRUCIAL
Apart from climate change, Pacific states must also think about their economic futures.
Under moves to tear down barriers to world trade, they are set to lose privileged trade status granted by such economic giants as the European Union.
Instead, they will negotiate with the EU next month over so-called "Economic Partnership Agreements", a new form of EU trade accord individually tailored to regional needs.
They combine trade with measures to promote development and extend duty free access, rather than rely on duties and quotas which still exist for commodities like sugar, Fiji's main crop.
Forum Secretary General Levi said member countries must forge a unified front to take advantage of the new EU accords.
"For too many of our island countries, economic development in recent decades had depended on special circumstances which may well prove non-sustainable," Levi said.
"Modern economic growth and the relief of poverty in the Pacific require...a different kind of journey," he told a pre-forum meeting in the Vanuatu capital Port Vila last week.