Category: Top Stories

The Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) in the Solomon Islands, working with 21 patrol boats, protects hundreds of millions of dollars in tuna fishing licence income for the region’s aid-dependent nations. The widening role into border security operations is being enabled through an obscure treaty agreement Australia is preparing to ratify allowing Pacific Islands […]

MANILA (Reuters) – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday called for the withdrawal of U.S. military from a restive southern island, fearing an American troop presence could complicate offensives against Islamist militants notorious for beheading Westerners. [restrict] Duterte, who was in the spotlight last week over his televised tirade against the United States and President […]

 Shinzo Abe’s request for more defense spending reflects an important shift in mindset For the fifth straight year, the Japanese government of Shinzo Abe has requested an increase in defense spending. Concerned about Chinese territorial incursions around the Senaku Islands and North Korea’s bellicose rhetoric and weapons testing, the 2.3 percent increase would go toward […]

TAIPEI (Reuters) – About 10,000 Taiwan tourism operators and workers marched to a square in front of the presidential hall on Monday to demand that the government take steps to help their businesses, hard hit by worsening ties with mainland China. Relations between the self-ruled island and the mainland, which regards Taiwan as a renegade […]

As one of the world’s most climate vulnerable regions and a growing emitter of greenhouse gases in its own right, regional governments must take the initiative This summer has seen Asia and the Pacific rocked by intense and unstable weather, bringing into even greater focus the need to build resilience against climate change and extreme […]