Nauru chairs small island states leaders’ meeting at 48th pacific island leaders’ forum in Samoa
The 27th Small Island States (SIS)
leaders' meeting is the first meeting to be held during the 48th
Pacific Island Leaders forum that is taking place in Apia Samoa
from 4-8 September.
In assuming the chairmanship for this year's SIS leaders meeting
on Monday 4 September, His Excellency President Baron Waqa
acknowledged and thanked the outgoing Chair, and Prime Minister of
the Cook Islands Henry Puna.
In his opening address, President Waqa reflected on this year's
theme "The Blue Pacific - Our sea of islands - security through
sustainable development, management and conservation."
"We all know that the waters that surrounds us is what sustain our
islands and our people. We owe it to our children and their
children to ensure that their future is one in which they can enjoy
with happiness and with abundant blessings. I look forward to
working with you all on the theme over the course of this
week."
President Waqa emphasised the importance of leaders discussing and
building solidarity on issues of common and special interest to
SIS.
"As the smallest members of the Forum, we must stand together and
be firm on what we believe is importance to our future."
Following the meeting President Waqa spoke to the media and said
that Fiji's chairmanship of COP23 in Bonn Germany is good for the
pacific and will strengthen the concerns of Smaller Island
States.
"Well certainly it would.
"Already Fiji is doing quite a lot of work on getting the region
together and discussing certain issues to present, not only the
regional approach but also individual projects that each country
would like to push forward.
"At the end there will be consensus on what the position of the
Pacific is."
In light of Nauru hosting the 49th Pacific Forum in 2018,
President Waqa assured the media that his Government will be
working with the PIFS to ensure media entry to Nauru.
Like all meetings throughout the week, the SIS leaders meeting was
a closed door meeting with discussions including air services and
air space, joint SIS proposals for the global climate fund (GCF),
nuclear concerns in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI),
labour mobility and how it can be improved through identifying
skills sets and visa requirements for the different borders and
small island states.