PACIFIC ISLANDS FORUM: CREATION, DEVELOPMENT AND RESULTS

Abstract

The Pacific Islands Forum is established as the South Pacific Forum in 1971 to provide heads of government with a venue to discuss common issues and problems facing the independent and self-governing nations of the South Pacific. Based in Suva, Fiji, the forum includes Australia, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, French Polynesia, Kiribati, Nauru, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. At its first meeting, senior Forum officials recommended the creation of a permanent bureau to deal with economic issues, a measure approved the following year. The resulting group, the South Pacific Bureau for Economic Cooperation (now Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat in Suva, Fiji), was established in April 1973 and works to facilitate cooperation among members in trade, tourism, transportation and economic development. A breakthrough in the cooperation of the member countries of the Forum occurred after the South Pacific Regional Trade and Economic Cooperation Agreement (SPARTECA), signed in 1980 in Tarawa, Kiribati, entered into force from 1 January 1981. At the end of 1994, the Forum received observer status at the UN General Assembly. 1999 was a significant year for the South Pacific Forum, as it was decided that from the beginning of 2000 it would bear the name Pacific Islands Forum. On 18 August 2001, the Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations (PACER) was signed in Nauru and entered into force on 3 October 2002. In 2009, new negotiations related to the Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations (PACER) began, which ended in April 2017 with the adoption of the PACER Plus agreement, including further trade liberalization and aid for development. Entered into force on 13 December 2020.