South Pacific island states are investigating setting up a EU-like grouping to help the mostly impoverished nations pool their scant resources, top officials said yesterday.
New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, the chairwoman of the 16-nation Pacific Islands Forum, said yesterday "a vision for the Pacific for the 21st century" is emerging from the "Pacific Plan" report issued by a panel of experts set up last November.
The group began a three-day meeting in the New Zealand capital, Wellington, yesterday, to finalize their initial report to the Forum's 16 heads of government.
The forum's new secretary-general, former Australian diplomat Greg Urwin, said the proposals were "groundbreaking" for the traditionally slow-moving region.
The "Pacific Plan" suggests that "with some effort and goodwill we can deepen the cooperation across the region. I think there are quite a number" of such areas for broad cooperation, Urwin said.
"It strikes me what they have probably got in mind is the way the EU slowly developed from a set of practical measures into something rather broader," he added.
"It's widely recognized we've reached a very particular point in the Pacific's history generally that a number of things do have to be looked at afresh," Urwin said.
Although no details of the scope of a possible Pacific islands union have emerged, it would likely be far more powerful than the Pacific Islands Forum, a slow-moving bureaucracy that initiates plans to assist the development of the small island economies.
Led by a former Papua New Guinea premier, Sir Julius Chan, the experts panel worked against a background of a region in turmoil.
Most of its small nations are addicted to foreign aid, have populations who are dwindling as they head to bigger countries in search of jobs, once-pristine environments slowly submerging in waste and low-lying coastlines vulnerable to the threat of rising water levels.
Regional powerhouses Australia and New Zealand are equally concerned, fearing the impoverished region is an arc of instability that could harbor terrorists.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was