The Grand Chief makes his final journey home

The body of Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare has been transferred to his home province of East Sepik. After official ceremonies in Port Moresby, his body was received at Wewak airport on Sunday. There will be more events and ceremonies ahead of the burial this week.

His death has been commemorated by members of the Pacific diaspora across the world. Hundreds gathered at a memorial mass that was held in Brisbane on Sunday. The service included tributes from Sir Rabbie Namaliu, former PM of PNG and Sean Dorney, former ABC foreign correspondent.

However, a number of people, including senior medical practitioners have expressed their concerns that the events marking Sir Michael’s death may cause a spike in the number of COVID-19 infections in the country. All indications are that there is significant community transmission, especially in and around Port Moresby.

New Zealand and Niue establish a one-way travel bubble

Authorities in New Zealand and Niue have announced that they have established a one-way travel bubble. This means that residents of Niue (who are citizens of New Zealand) will be able to travel to NZ without being required to undergo quarantine on arrival. There have been no cases of COVID-19 recorded in Niue.

This arrangement is expected to commence on March 24. It will allow for those living in Niue to visit family in New Zealand, and access medical services that are not available at home. Previously the premier of Niue, Dalton Tagelagi, had asked that an increased quota of medical exemption travel vouchers be made available for Niueans.

A two-way travel bubble is not yet on the cards. Whilst this will be of crucial importance to rebooting Niue’s struggling tourism industry, more work is needed to ensure that Niue maintains its COVID-free status.

Pacific countries lead calls for emissions tax on shipping

Marshall Islands and Solomon Islands have joined forces to call for an emissions tax on the global shipping industry.

Their proposal will go to a meeting of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in June of this year. These countries are among those who have been very critical of the IMO about what is seen as an inadequate response to the call for international shipping to do more to reduce greenhouse emissions.

The proposal put forward by Solomon Islands and Marshall Islands proposes an entry price of US$100 per ton with a view to increasing the levy overtime to incentivise moves towards decarbonisation. The Pacific negotiators argue that the revenue raised can be used to support climate vulnerable countries such as theirs and research into new technologies to benefit the maritime industry.

Quad leaders’ meeting establishes a vaccine initiative for the Asia-Pacific meeting

The leaders of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue – commonly referred to as the Quad – met virtually over the weekend. It was the first such meeting further to other ministerial meetings between the membership: Australia, India, Japan and the USA.

A key announcement arising from the meeting is an initiative to boost vaccine rollouts to countries in the Asia-Pacific region. By pooling production, logistics and finance resources the group plans to deliver one billion vaccines to low-income countries across Asia and the Pacific. The project anticipates that this can be achieved by the end of 2022.

The leaders also discussed the need for greater action on climate change. John Kerry, who is President Biden’s special envoy for climate change joined the meeting. The leaders agreed to establish a “Quad climate working group” to pursue the aim of keeping a “Paris-aligned temperature limit within reach”.

Australia steps up to support PNG deal with COVID-19 situation

The Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, James Marape, has told a press conference that his country is now in the “red stage” of the COVID-19 outbreak. The extent of community transmission has yet to be quantified.

Further to talks between his government and Australian counterparts, Canberra has announced the deployment of a three-person AUSMAT team, which will include an infectious diseases expert. The National Security Council met to discuss what further support can be offered on Monday night. Marape made a request for vaccines for frontline health workers ahead of the first batch from COVAX which is not expected to arrive into PNG until April.

On Monday, Mr Marape indicated that the country would go into “isolation” in order for authorities to determine what the extent of the community transmission actually is. Further details of what this will mean will be released on Wednesday when the PM returns from the burial of Sir Michael Somare.

AUTHOR

Tess Newton Cain is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Griffith Asia Institute and project lead of the Pacific Hub.