Pacific Islands Forum
Pacific Islands Forum PIF |
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Pacific Islands Forum logo |
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English name | Pacific Islands Forum |
Organization type | Regional cooperation |
Seat of the organs | Suva , Fiji |
Chair | changing annually |
Secretary General | Meg Taylor |
Member States | 18 : |
Associate members | |
surface | 8,538,051 km², of which AUS : 7,741,220 km² |
population | 36 million (estimate, 2013), of which FROM: 23 million |
Population density | 4.2 inhabitants per km² |
gross domestic product | 1.694 billion US $ (estimate, 2013), of which AUS: 1.488 billion US $ |
Gross domestic product per inhabitant | US $ 47,051 (estimate, 2013), excluding AUS & NZL : US $ 2,941 |
founding |
August 1971 |
Currencies | |
Time zone | UTC + 8 to UTC + 14 |
www.forumsec.org |
The Pacific Islands Forum ( PIF ; German Pacific Island Forum ) is a consultative forum for the island states of the Pacific with the aim of promoting cooperation in the political, economic and cultural fields.
The forum first met in August 1971 under the name South Pacific Forum in Wellington , New Zealand . The founding members were Australia , the Cook Islands , Fiji , Nauru , New Zealand, Tonga and Samoa (then Western Samoa). Nine other oceanic states followed. At the 30th forum meeting in 1999 in Koror , Palau , it was decided to rename it the Pacific Islands Forum in order to take account of the expansion of membership to states north of the equator .
Significant results of the forum are the 1985 negotiated Treaty of Rarotonga , the negotiation of various economic agreements and the 2003 deployment of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands . Due to its security policy activities such as the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons , the General Assembly of the United Nations has recognized the Pacific Islands Forum as a regional organization under Chapter VIII of the UN Charter . At the UN itself it is represented as an observer.
structure
Every year the heads of state and government of the forum states meet and discuss questions from the entire spectrum of political topics. These leaders' meetings form the highest decision-making body in the forum process. They take place annually in another Member State and may be a. accompanied by meetings of the Pacific ACP states and the so-called Smaller Islands States , a grouping of the small island states within the forum. Following the Leaders' Meetings , consultations with the Post-Forum Dialogue Partners have taken place since 1989 , which serve to intensify cooperation with the region. These are currently the People's Republic of China , the European Union , France , the United Kingdom , Japan , Canada , Cuba , Malaysia , the Philippines , Indonesia , India , Italy , South Korea , Thailand , the United States , Spain and Turkey .
In addition to the Leaders' Meetings , the forum process includes numerous other meetings at ministerial level. They are empowered to promote common policies independently in their respective areas of responsibility and to draft corresponding resolutions. The heads of state and government often only take note of the results of these meetings if they see no need for action of their own. The ministerial meetings are prepared in particular by further meetings at the speaker level.
The administrative arm of the forum is the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat , an - in contrast to the forum itself - an international organization based in Suva, Fijian . The predecessor of the Secretariat was a trade office founded at the 2nd Forum in 1972 in Canberra , Australia . It started work in November 1972. At the 4th Forum in 1973 in Apia , Samoan , the forum states signed a founding treaty under international law which, when it came into force, formed the formal legal basis of the office. 1991 and 2000, new contracts were signed respectively by the Commercial Office of the South Pacific Forum Secretariat and then from today's Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat replaced was. As far as the forum accepted new members, they also gradually joined the respective secretariat contract. In individual cases they were previously members of the office or secretariat.
The secretariat is headed by a general secretary. He is elected for a term of three years by the heads of state and government of the forum and can be re-elected once. The penultimate general secretary since January 2004 was the Australian Greg Urwin . After eight months of illness, he died in office on August 9, 2008 in Apia. In May 2008, he announced his retirement from politics and left the management of the business to his deputy. On the occasion of the 39th forum meeting in Niue in 2008, the heads of state and government of the Pacific Islands Forum elected the Samoan Tuiloma Neroni Slade as the new general secretary on August 21, 2008 . He took office on October 13, 2008. At their 45th forum meeting on July 31, 2014, the heads of state and government elected Papua New Guinea Meg Taylor to succeed Slade; she took office on December 4, 2014.
The secretariat essentially takes care of the coordination in the following areas:
- Development and economic plans
- Trade and investment
- Political, International and Legal Matters as well
- Company support
The forum and the secretariat are formally independent of each other. A contract signed at the 36th Forum in 2005 in Port Moresby , Papua New Guinea , provides for the merger of the two institutions, but it has not yet come into force.
The Inselforum is permanently represented at the World Trade Organization (WTO) through its office in Geneva . It also has trading offices in Auckland , Beijing , Sydney and Tokyo .
At the 39th forum meeting in Niue from 19 to 20 August 2008, the topics of fisheries, energy, trade and economic integration , climate change and transport, information and communication technology, health, education and good governance were discussed , building on the negotiations in Port Moresby . In particular, global warming and the rise in sea levels are of great importance in the Pacific region, so the 'Niue Declaration on Climate Change' was written. In addition, they agreed to support the Solomon Islands and Nauru, followed by talks about the radioactive contamination of the Marshall Islands from US nuclear tests.
Members
All 16 independent states of Oceania are members of the Pacific Islands Forum. The two French possessions of New Caledonia and French Polynesia have been associated members since 2006 and therefore have no voting rights. In September 2011, the U.S. suburbs American Samoa , Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands were granted observer status.
After the member state Fiji was controlled by a military government under Frank Bainimarama since a coup in 2006 , the other members of the Pacific Islands Forum decided unanimously at a meeting on January 27, 2009 in Port Moresby, by the rulers in Fiji by May 1 at the latest To demand the submission of a constructive plan for the country's early return to democracy in 2009. After this deadline passed, Fiji's participation in the forum was suspended on May 2, 2009. The chairman of the forum emphasized that this action was not directed against the residents of Fiji and that the country would remain one of the 16 members of the forum, but the current military government would be excluded from active participation. After holding parliamentary elections on September 17, 2014, which confirmed Bainimarama as Prime Minister, the forum lifted Fiji's suspension on October 22, 2014.
For a long time, the French Pacific regions were denied membership due to the forum's anti-nuclear weapons activities. New Caledonia and French Polynesia were able to join the forum in 2016 through increased lobbying in Australia.
Full members | |||
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Australia (AU) | Marshall Islands (MH) | Niue (NU) | Tonga (TO) |
Cook Islands (CK) | Micronesia (FM) | Palau (PW) | Tuvalu (TV) |
Fiji (FJ) | Nauru (NR) | Papua New Guinea (PG) | Vanuatu (VU) |
French Polynesia (PF) | New Caledonia (NC) | Solomon Islands (SB) | |
Kiribati (KI) | New Zealand (NZ) | Samoa (WS) | |
Associate members | |||
Tokelau (TK) | |||
observer | |||
American Samoa (AS) | Guam (GU) | Northern Mariana Islands (MP) | East Timor (TL) |
Wallis and Futuna (WF) | United Nations | World bank | Commonwealth Secretariat |
ACP group | Asian Development Bank | WCPFC | International Organization for Migration |
Abbreviations according to ISO-3166-1 coding list |
General Secretaries
The post of Secretary General is equivalent to the post of Head of the South Pacific Office for Economic Cooperation until September 1988.
Surname | Period | Country |
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Mahe Tupouniua | November 1972–1980 | Tonga |
Gabriel Gris | 1980-1982 | Papua New Guinea |
John Sheppard | 1982 - January 1983 ( provisional ) | Australia |
Mahe Tupouniua | January 1983 - January 1986 | Tonga |
Henry Naisali | January 1986 - September 1988 | Tuvalu |
Surname | Period | Country |
Henry Naisali | September 1988 - January 1992 | Tuvalu |
Ieremia Tabai | January 1992 - January 1998 | Kiribati |
Noel Levi | February 1998 - May 16, 2004 | Papua New Guinea |
Greg Urwin | May 16, 2004 - May 2, 2008 | Australia |
Feleti Teo | May 2, 2008 - October 13, 2008 (provisional) | Tuvalu |
Tuiloma Neroni Slade | October 13, 2008 - December 4, 2014 | Samoa |
Meg Taylor | since December 4, 2014 | Papua New Guinea |
Forum meeting
In addition to the regular annual forum meetings, extraordinary meetings are also held as required, but these are not included in the official count.
Forum | year | Country | city |
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1. Forum | 1971 | New Zealand | Wellington |
2. Forum | 1972 | Australia | Canberra |
3. Forum | 1972 | Fiji | Suva |
4. Forum | 1973 | Samoa | Apia |
5. Forum | 1974 | Cook Islands | Rarotonga |
6. Forum | 1975 | Tonga | Nuku'alofa |
7. Forum | 1976 | Nauru | Aiwo |
8. Forum | 1977 | Papua New Guinea | Port Moresby |
9. Forum | 1978 | Niue | Alofi |
10. Forum | 1979 | Solomon Islands | Honiara |
11. Forum | 1980 | Kiribati | Tarawa |
12. Forum | 1981 | Vanuatu | Port Vila |
13. Forum | 1982 | New Zealand | Rotorua |
14. Forum | 1983 | Australia | Canberra |
15. Forum | 1984 | Tuvalu | Funafuti |
16. Forum | 1985 | Cook Islands | Rarotonga |
17. Forum | 1986 | Fiji | Suva |
18. Forum | 1987 | Samoa | Apia |
19th forum | 1988 | Tonga | Nuku'alofa |
20. Forum | 1989 | Kiribati | Tarawa |
21. Forum | 1990 | Vanuatu | Port Vila |
22. Forum | 1991 | Micronesia | Palikir |
23. Forum | 1992 | Solomon Islands | Honiara |
24. Forum | 1993 | Nauru | Aiwo |
25. Forum | 1994 | Australia | Brisbane |
26. Forum | 1995 | Papua New Guinea | Madang |
27. Forum | 1996 | Marshall Islands | Majuro |
28. Forum | 1997 | Cook Islands | Rarotonga |
29th forum | 1998 | Micronesia | Palikir |
30. Forum | 1999 | Palau | Koror |
31. Forum | 2000 | Kiribati | Tarawa |
32nd forum | 2001 | Nauru | Aiwo |
33rd Forum | 2002 | Fiji | Suva |
34th forum | 2003 | New Zealand | Auckland |
35th forum | 2004 | Samoa | Apia |
36th Forum | 2005 | Papua New Guinea | Madang |
37th Forum | 2006 | Fiji | Nadi |
38th Forum | 2007 | Tonga | Nuku'alofa |
39th Forum | 2008 | Niue | Alofi |
40th forum | 2009 | Australia | Cairns |
41st Forum | 2010 | Vanuatu | Port Vila |
42nd Forum | 2011 | New Zealand | Auckland |
43rd Forum | 2012 | Cook Islands | Rarotonga |
44th Forum | 2013 | Marshall Islands | Majuro |
45th Forum | 2014 | Palau | Koror |
46th Forum | 2015 | Papua New Guinea | Port Moresby |
47th Forum | 2016 | Micronesia | Palikir |
48th forum | 2017 | Samoa | Apia |
49th Forum | 2018 | Nauru | Yaren |
50th forum | 2019 | Tuvalu | Funafuti |
51st Forum | 2021 | Vanuatu |
literature
- Henning Blatt: Pacific Islands Forum: An International Legal Approach to Institutionalism and Regionalism in Oceania . Carl Heymanns, Cologne 2011. ISBN 978-3-452-27616-2 .
- Stuart Doran: Australia and the origins of the Pacific Islands Forum . Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Canberra 2004. ISBN 1-876534-24-9 .
- Yoko Ogashiwa: South Pacific Forum: Survival under External Pressure (PDF; 1.0 MB). In: Hiroshima Peace Science 22 (2000) pp. 45-73.
Web links
- Official website of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ DSW Report 2013 - country database , accessed on May 15, 2014.
- ↑ List of countries according to gross domestic product , accessed on May 15, 2014.
- ↑ Except Cook Islands, Nauru and Niue.
- ↑ Resolution 56/41 of December 7, 2001 and Resolution 57/37 of November 21, 2002.
- ^ New Forum Secretary General Commences 3-Year Contract ( Memento of October 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive ); PIFS press release (108/08) of October 9, 2008.
- ↑ PNG's Dame Meg Taylor will be PIFS First Female Secretary General ( August 8, 2014 memento in the Internet Archive ); PIFS press release from August 1st, 2014.
- ^ Statement by Forum Chair on suspension of the Fiji military regime from the Pacific Islands Forum ( Memento of October 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive ); PIFS press release (21/09) of May 2, 2009.
- ^ Statement by Forum Chair on lifting the suspension of Fiji from the Pacific Islands Forum ( Memento of October 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive ); PIFS press release of October 24, 2014.
- ^ Grant Wyeth: France in the Pacific: Growing Strategic Ties With Australia , thediplomat.com October 16, 2017.
- ↑ Lisa Williams-Lahari: Statement in relation to the 51st Pacific Islands Forum meeting. In: forumsec.org. Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, June 3, 2020, accessed June 5, 2020 .
Coordinates: 18 ° 9 ′ 1 ″ S , 178 ° 26 ′ 22 ″ E