Palau quits Pacific Islands Forum

Palau said its departure was prompted by the failure of its preferred candidate to win election as secretary-general.

The 18-member Pacific Island Forum is made up of small island states along with Australia and New Zealand. Picture: AFP

Palau said on Friday it was quitting the Pacific Islands Forum over a leadership row.

Palau said its departure was prompted by the failure of its preferred candidate to win election as the forum’s secretary-general, with four other Micronesian nations also threatening to withdraw over the issue.

The 18-member forum is made up of mostly small island states along with Australia and New Zealand.

The five Micronesian countries had argued it was their turn to select the forum secretary-general under an informal arrangement that has stood for decades. But their preferred candidate was snubbed when former Cook Islands prime minister Henry Puna won a ballot for the post by a single vote on Thursday. “After recent events, the government of the republic of Palau will be terminating its participation in the Pacific Islands Forum,” the government said in a diplomatic note. “The process regarding the appointment of the secretary-general has clearly indicated to the republic of Palau that unity, regionalism and the Pacific Way no longer guide the Forum.”

The other members of the Micronesian bloc — the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, and the Federated States of Micronesia — will hold a virtual meeting on Monday to discuss following Palau’s lead.

The grouping was established in 1971 as the South Pacific Forum, adopting its current name and expanding its membership in 1999. Micronesian nations have long felt their north Pacific island states have been neglected in favour of their larger and more influential neighbours in the south.

“What we have seen is a south Pacific that looks down on the north Pacific and we find that deeply unfortunate,” Federated States of Micronesia President David Panuelo told Australian radio in the wake of the leadership vote. “It’s a huge fracture in the (forum’s) unity and spirit of co-operation.”

Nauru President Lionel Aingimea has already signalled his intention to pull out. “If this is the way Micronesia is treated then it is better off withdrawing from the Forum,” he said on Friday.

AFP