The ‘New Pacific Diplomacy’: An introduction

The rise of international parliamentary institutions: Purpose and legitimation

“…The animosity smaller states in PIF have towards Australian and New Zealand proposed region-building projects was visible before the re-organization of the IO in 2001, when a Fijian leader and original founder of PIF expressed his dissatisfaction by saying, "[greater powers] have sought to impose their solutions in an insensitive way, when left to ourselves we could work things out in what we have called the Pacific Way"(Mara 2001). The issue came to the fore again in 2004 when the Pacific Plan to be adopted in accordance with the EPG report was labeled as a neoliberal endeavor inspired and influenced by the two bigger neighbors(Fry and Tarte 2015). To this day, the unease small island states have with respect to increased interference from outside powers continues -PIF technocrats are for instance trying to move towards a system in which big donors are only involved in budget support, and not policy design and implementation, 12 and most recently, small islands states also established a rival organization, the Pacific Islands Development Forum, in which Australia and New Zealand do not participate(Pareti 2013).…”

French EEZs in the Pacific in the context of ocean change

“…It was officially constituted in 2015 (Charter of the Pacific Islands Development Forum of 4 September 2015), after two previous meetings 6 , where the Pacific island countries and territories (PICT) specified their hopes for the New Pacific. They consider PIDF as being "the only platform that meets this" (Overview), in contrast to over-politicized PIF, and SPCformed by former colonial powers (Fry, Tarte, 2015). Among 17 founding countries and regional organizations, there are also French Polynesia, New Caledonia, and Wallis and Futuna 7 .…”

Contested Terrain: Reconceptualising Security in the Pacific

“…The response of the PICs to the need to engage with the big power more effectively was to pull their political and moral resources together using more creative diplomatic approaches. This required some independent and strategic thinking because of the need to overcome some of what they see as patronising and exploitative tendencies by the bigger powers such as Australia and New Zealand (Fry & Tarte, 2015). This 'new Pacific diplomacy', as Fry and Tarte (2015) call it, seems to have been galvanised in part by Fiji's suspension from the Pacific Islands Forum and the rise of climate change as a major security threat.…”

“…Only certain PICs are members of PNA. There have been other cases of the way the new Pacific diplomacy scenario has unfolded, including the new policy directions by Meg Taylor, secretary general of the PIF, and the push to separate the PACER advisory office from the PIF (Fry & Tarte, 2015).…”