‘Smaller’ islands kick off Forum week

That the first meeting on the Forum agenda pertains to the needs of smaller island states is significant.

Forum Secretariat secretary-general Tuiloma Neroni Slade noted that the timing of yesterday’s smaller island states’ leaders meeting was strategic, as its discussions will set the stage for the rest of this week’s Forum.

The chronology of the meeting was important, he said, in order that smaller island states leaders’ decisions are ”not simply noted“ in the Forum communiqu but ”become effective and meaningful as part of the Forum leaders’ discussions“.

The smaller island states group comprises the Cook Islands Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau and Tuvalu. French Polynesia, Tokelau and Wallis and Futuna were present as observers.

The sub-group was created to strengthen solidarity between those islands with limited land mass and, historically, quieter voices.

Yesterday’s meeting was convened to engender a ”more strategic positioning“ of smaller island states’ interests within the Pacific Plan – the master document governing regional cooperation.

Slade opened the meeting, which lasted into the late afternoon. Following his opening address, he welcomed Prime Minister Henry Puna into the role of chairman of the smaller island states committee.

Slade noted ”consensus, agreement, even enthusiasm around the table“ in relation to his invitation to Puna to preside over the meeting.

A report drafted by a group of bureaucrats set the pace for yesterday’s meeting.

Discussions primarily focused on the challenges smaller island states face, given their enhanced vulnerability and relative isolation. Those include special requirements for smaller island states in the area of climate change finance, sub regional transportation (services like shipping and aviation), trade policy frameworks, tourism potential for smaller island states, and gender empowerment.

”It will be appreciated these are issues which cannot be considered in isolation or as smaller island states issues per se,“ Slade said, noting that they fit into a wider context of ”global processes“.

Two of those global forces worth noting, he said, are the Busan Partnership for Effective Development Coordination and Rio+20.

Yesterday’s meeting also touched on the work of small island states units within each member state – the Secretariat recently allocated a desk to each small island state to facilitate regular reporting of its government’s implementation of the Pacific Plan.

Hariette Kimiora of the Office of the Prime Minister is heading the Cook Islands’ unit.

Representing the Cook Islands at yesterday’s meeting was, of course, Puna, joined by his chief of staff Liz Koteka, foreign affairs minister Tom Marsters and secretary for foreign affairs Jim Gosselin.