Experts weigh in on Pacific Islands regional rift at EWC virtual workshop

Abstract

Recovery from the economic damage of the COVID-19 pandemic and the dire climate change challenges now confronting the people of the Pacific Islands make the need for regional cooperation and solidarity greater than ever. Unfortunately, a regional political dispute threatens to divide island nation groupings at this critical time. In a recent virtual East-West Center workshop supported by the Government of Japan, several policy experts discussed the recent decision by five Micronesian countries to withdraw from the region's primary international body, the Pacific Islands Forum, or PIF, following a dispute over the election of the Forum’s Secretary-General.