Pacific Island

“You speak for the most vulnerable. That is why I am counting on you to raise your voices to build political momentum to resolve outstanding issues,” Ban told the meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum.

“The PIF is crucial to realizing our global vision for a sustainable future.”

Ban noted that this year Member States have agreed on key global policies – on disaster risk reduction, on financing for development, and most recently on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which collectively aim to ensure the long-term well-being of the planet and its people.

A digital revolution is underway in the Pacific, but there's concern over a clash between cyber culture and traditional culture.

Mobile phones are now a way of life in the Pacific, but what they're being used for is causing concern, with phone video of groups fighting having been posted online.

The Tongan government is holding community consultations over a possible cyber clampdown. 

It's looking at a total ban on porn sites and selective blocking of young Facebook users after bullying. 

Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi had just come back on Thursday from her visit to Fiji, where she attended the Pacific Island Development Forum (PIDF) and discussed how to build resilience to climate change.

“The focus is how the Pacific Islands prepare adaptation and mitigation measures for climate change,” the ministry’s spokesperson, Armanatha Nasir, said .

US and Pacific officials met in Australia to discuss renewing the 1988 South Pacific Tuna Treaty which allows US vessels to fish in the exclusive economic zones of Pacific Island countries.

But instead an 89 million US dollar deal for 2016 was reached with the US saying its participation beyond that is uncertain.

The Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency's deputy director general, Wez Norris, says the US provides financial assistance under the Treaty and the agency is taking the threat of lost aid seriously.