THE Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare, who is the current interim chairman of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), leaves today to attend the 38th Leaders’ Summit in Nuku’alofa, Tonga, from Oct 15-18.
Sir Michael said in a statement yesterday that the PIF was the region’s premier political and economic policy organisation, which meets annually to develop collective responses to regional economic, political and social issues.
“We will have substantive discussions in Tonga, including the political situation in Fiji, Ramsi in the Solomon Islands, progress report on the implementation of the Pacific Plan and country initiatives by Samoa and the small island states,” Sir Michael said.
He added that Foreign Affairs and Immigrations Minister Sam Abal would take part in the post-Forum dialogue with partners Canada, China, the European Union, France, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, UK and the USA.
PNG hosted the 36th PIF in Port Moresby and handed the chairmanship to Fiji but PNG was asked to retain the chairmanship on an interim basis.
Members of the PIF are Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, Nauru, New Zealand, Tonga, Samoa, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Niue, Marshall Islands, Palau, PNG, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
New Caledonia and French Polynesia are associate members while Tokelau, Wallis, Futuna and Timor Leste have observer status.

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