The Honiara decisions

By Martin Tiffany

THE SMALLER member countries of the South Pacific Forum look set to gain from trade initiatives put forward at the recent Forum meeting. The Forum urged all other regional organisations to pay greater attention to the special needs of the small island states in their programs. The day before the two-day Forum meeting the five small nations of the Forum Kiribati, Tuvalu, the Cook Islands, Nauru and Niue held their second economic summit.

The five agreed to work together to develop trade, their private sectors and marine resources. The Hawaii-based

Pacific Islands Development Programme

will fund a meeting of the private sector of the five in Rarotonga. Meanwhile Fiji outlined development assistance initiat ives to assist the small nations by providing access to their education facilities through a scholarship scheme.

Trade and the economy were high up on the agenda. The meeting stressed the importance of putting in place domestic economic policies in light of the private sector’s role in ensuring economic growth.

The meeting stressed the importance of establishing more effective interna tional links, in particular with the countries of the Asia/ Pacific Rim.

In another move the heads of govern ment sent a letter to the Group of Seven (G 7) industrialised nations meeting at an economic summit in Munich at the time.

The letter urged the G 7 leaders to “take the necessary political decisions to break the impasse in the Uruguay Round of Multilateral trade negotiations. The Forum noted the “sustainable develop ment would only be realised in full if developing countries, were able to ben efit from responsible management of their resources through more open and fairer trading conditions.”

In its communique the 15 Forum Hand countries reaffirmed their com m tment towards many of the environ mental issues. They also recognised global warming and sea level rise as the most serious threat facing the Pacific especially the low-lying atolls and urged early negotiations of protocols to strengthen the climate change conven tion.

The meeting urged concrete measures }e taken to develop technology for enewable energy sources, including so ar, wind and hydro and energy efficient echnologies. It said this would help nake less severe the adverse impacts of

limate change.

Indefinite extension of the French

cessation of nuclear tests was welcomed by the Forum. The Forum leaders sent an urgent letter to the President of the French Republic, urging him to suspend French nuclear testing indefinitely.

Plans by the Japanese government to ship plutonium from Europe to Japan via the Pacific caused concern. The meeting noted the risks inherent in such ship ments from surface accidents and from possible loss of cargo at sea.

The Forum asked that the shipments be made in accordance with the highest international safety and security stan dards and urged Japan to consult fully with Forum countries regarding the

proposed shipments.

The Forum considered issues relating to regional co-operation in the law enforcement field and agreed to a declaration on Law Enforcement Co operation which identifies priorities and establishes a framework within which further co-operation can be pursued. 1993 has been declared the Interna tional Year forlndigenous people of the World by the United Nations.

With this in mind the Forum meeting recognised the importance of these issues to the region and has agreed to hold a regional conference later this year. The conference will look at the broader concerns such as indigenous rights, the protection and preservation of culture including cultural property, approaches to resource and environmental manage ment and the application of customary laws.

The Forum said these regional con cerns could then be encompassed in the United States Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and also be incorporated into considerations at the United Nations on a possible follow-up program of action within the region.

Most of the South Pacific Forum countries and member states of the

Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) signed

the Niue Fisheries Surveillance and Law Enforcement Co-operation Treaty in Honiara last month.

Those who signed were the Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micro nesia, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Pa lau, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Western Samoa and Australia.

Fiji, Kiribati and Tokelau did not sign but they said this was because the decision to sign had yet to go through their parliaments.

The Niue treaty provides for co operation among the regional countries on surveillance of their fisheries resources to be co-ordinated from the FFA.It also provides for co-operation in law enforce ment against drug trafficking and other

organised crimes.

On the Joint Commercial Com mission proposed by President Bush, the Forum said it would go ahead in terms of the US private sector and Pacific private sector people meeting.

The question of a JCC secretariat is yet to be decided as the US has so far refused to fund a secretariat.

The Forum said it had a responsibility to Pacific children and their future.

The meeting said member govern ments must continue with adequate support for essential health and educa tional services for children, in particular for primary health care and education.

The Forum endorsed the World De claration on the Survival, Protection and Development of Children and encour aged governments yet to sign to do so.

The Forum suggested the South Pa cific Conference consider adopting “Pa cific Children” as the theme of the 1993 South Pacific Conference.

On New Caledonia and the Kanak people the Forum was encouraged by the progress made in the implementation of the Matignon Accords and reiterated its full support for the process being conducted under the Accords.

The Forum said it hoped French authorities and others would continue to expand their assistance for education and training opportunities for the Kanak population, to enable all New Cale donians to exercise their right of self determination under the best possible conditions.

The European Commission says Pacific island countries should look to the service industry to compensate for the depressed prices of traditional export commodities and to help enhance their economies.

Speaking at the post-Forum Dialogue Partners meeting the EC’s Deputy Direc tor General for Development, Philippe Soubestre, said although there was tough competition from other regions in the service industry, Pacific island countries had great potential for tourism.Soubestre said infrastructure for service industry developments in the Pacific AGP mem ber countries could be obtained from the EC.

The post-Forum meeting is seen by Forum leaders as a means of seeking the understanding and support of the Fo rum’s extra-regional partners for the Forum decisions.

All seven post-Forum dialogue part ners basically gave similar assurances they would further help the Forum countries through closer ties and further co-operation for the further development of the region, □