Marape to hand over chair to Loughman at forum tomorrow

PRIME Minister James Marape is expected to hand over the chairmanship of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) at the margins of the 51st Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) leaders meeting tomorrow in Suva, Fiji.
MSG leaders are expected to meet for a small but significant symbolic ceremony in which Marape will hand over the chairmanship to his Vanuatu counterpart Prime Minister Bob Loughman and also introduce the new director-general of the MSG Secretariat, Leonard Louma to the MSG leaders.
Louma, OBE, is a former diplomat and a senior public servant with more than 30 years of senior management experience in both the government and private sector.
The meeting (July 11-14) follows the Pacific Island Forum Foreign Minister’s Meeting (FFMM) on Friday (July 8) in which the 2050 Strategy for Blue Pacific Continent was one of the agendas discussed.
The strategy is a road map through which the Pacific island countries wish to ensure collective regional security, protect against threats of climate change, stability and socio-economic development for the Pacific island countries.
The leaders would be meeting for the first time in person since 2019 following the outbreak of Coronavirus (Covid-19).
The PIF leader’s meeting will see all the heads of government of the Pacific island countries and territories in attend.
Leading the PNG delegation at the FFMM was secretary of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Elias Wohengu, standing in as the special envoy of the Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Soroi Eoe, who was unable to attend due to election commitments back home.
Wohengu impressed on the Foreign Ministers the need to ensure that any possible global and regional engagements that the region collectively participated in needed to be consistent with the new regional strategy (2050 Strategy) as the region’s guide into the future by building on a number of existing regional frameworks such as the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty (1985), the Framework for the Pacific Oceanscape (2010), the Boe Declaration (2028) and the landmark Declaration on Preserving Maritime Zones in the face of Climate Change related sea-level rise (2021).