Author: TMC Palau

Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka will not attend the 55th Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting in Palau, with Foreign Affairs Minister Sakiasi Ditoka set to represent Fiji. The Forum Leaders Meeting, which is being held in Palau, is expected to be an important platform for Pacific leaders to strengthen regional cooperation and agree on common priorities ahead of Pre-COP31 and COP31. Fiji’s delegation will be led by Mr Ditoka, while Minister for Information, Environment and Climate Change and PSIDS Chair Lynda Tabuya has highlighted climate change as one of Fiji’s key priorities at the meeting. Ms Tabuya said Fiji wants Pacific…

A third of Pacific Islands Forum leaders may miss this week’s summit in a blow to regional unity that could deteriorate into a crisis.However, Australian and New Zealand officials are downplaying the impact of the pull-outs, some of which they privately blame on Chinese pressure.Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will fly out to Palau on Monday to lead Australia’s delegation at the annual PIF leaders meeting.For various reasons – domestic politics, poor health, and unspoken defiance – seven leaders may not attend.The leaders from Fiji, Kiribati, Samoa, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu are out, while there are conflicting reports about the participation…

The arrivals are building at Palau’s Roman Tmetuchl International Airport.But some of the most important seats at this week’s Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting will remain empty in Koror.New Zealand’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Vaovasamanaia Winston Peters, says the absences are disappointing.But he adds they should not take away from the importance of the region’s biggest political gathering.“It’s not the Pacific way to rub injury in the sense that you suggest I answer,” Peters told journalists. “But it’s a disappointment. And that’s what our position is.”Prime Minister of the Cook Islands, Mark Brown, arrives in Palau for the…

Solomon Islands Prime Minister Matthew Wale is now one of the five leaders not attending the 55th Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting this week in Koror, Palau.  Mr Wale left Palau International Airport on Saturday morning just hours after arriving in the country following a motion of no confidence filed by a member of his Cabinet on the same day back in the Solomon Islands.  The Member of Parliament, Manasseh Maelanga, claimed in a statement that Mr Wale had “repeatedly made decisions on matters of national importance without properly consulting Cabinet or obtaining its approval”. Mr Wale is the outgoing chairperson of the Pacific Islands Forum.  He was elected and sworn in as…

The annual Pacific Islands Forum begins on Monday in Palau, bringing together the 18-member intergovernmental organisation to discuss regional cooperation and security. On Sunday, Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung joined Palau President Surangel Whipps at a ceremony to hand over a fleet of electric buses donated by Taipei. China has criticised Taiwan’s participation in the event. Charles Parton, Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), shares further insights. Keywords for this article Source link

KOROR, Palau Palau President Surangel S. Whipps Jr. (L) and Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung gesture after cutting a ribbon during the inauguration ceremony for Taiwan-funded solar energy and electric bus projects in Koror on Aug. 30, ahead of the 55th Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting. (AFP photo) Pacific island leaders will tackle transnational drug crime as they meet in Palau from Aug. 31 for a summit where tensions between Taiwan and China risk overshadowing regional priorities like climate change. Palau, this year’s host of the 18-member Pacific Islands Forum, is among three members holding diplomatic ties with Taiwan and not China, a large creditor to many island…

Alii from Palau. Leaders are gathering in Koror for the annual meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF). They will be discussing the issues that matter not only to the region but also to its partners, including Australia and the United States. I am back as a guest of President Surangel Whipps Jr. When you arrive in Palau, it is usually evening. So it isn’t until you wake up that you see why people travel so far to experience this Pacific paradise. But this week people are here for the region’s most important yearly gathering. The theme for the 55th Pacific Islands Forum Meeting…

By: L.N. Reklai KOROR, Palau (August 30, 2026)— As Pacific leaders confront climate change, rising energy costs and a changing regional partnership landscape, Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr. is urging countries seeking closer ties with the Pacific to demonstrate how they will help meet the region’s priorities rather than use the Pacific Islands Forum as […]The post PIF Chair Whipps Says Partners Must Show How They Will Support Pacific Priorities, Renewable Energy Goals  appeared first on Island Times News. Source link

Pacific Islands Forum leaders will focus on transnational drug crime, climate change and other regional priorities in Palau, while tensions involving China, Taiwan and the US threaten to dominate the summit Pacific island leaders will meet in Palau from Monday for the Pacific Islands Forum summit, where they are expected to strengthen regional cooperation against transnational drug crime while addressing climate change, food security and renewable energy.Palau, host of the 18-member forum this year, is one of three Pacific countries that maintains diplomatic relations with Taiwan rather than China. Beijing is also a major creditor to many Pacific island states.China,…

You might be interested in Holaluz: what happened to the ‘rooftop revolution’? Palau de la Música. August 29, 2026 Concert ending with an encore: the instrumental version of the piece known as the ride that opens the third act of Die Walküre. It was the closing that paid tribute to the stones of a Palau de la Música of Wagnerian architecture, with the sculptural group of the Valkyries on the proscenium arch. A closing, also, to a much-anticipated concert, the final point of the 4th edition of the Festival de Peralada. Over the next few days, Madrid, Valencia, and Seville…