MSG

MSG signs MOU with Oceania Football

The signing ceremony was held in Vanuatu, with MSG Secretariat Acting Director General George Hoa'au and OFC President Lambert Maltock signing off on plans to establish a mutually cooperative relationship between the two organisations.

"I started this discussion even before I became President of the OFC but I was determined to see it come to fruition during my four-year term," Maltock said.

MSG members discuss potential 'Melanesian Bubble'

Tourism Organisation signs MOU with MSG

The South Pacific Tourism Organisation is expected to work with the grouping of Melanesian countries in areas like planning, policy, information sharing, product development and marketing.

The Memorandum of Understanding signed in Port Vila also includes collaboration with airlines on products, capacity building and training.

The tourism body's CEO Chris Cocker has highlighted the great potential for Solomon Islands and PNG in the area of cruise and niche tourism.

He's also pointed to the example of Fiji which has 40 percent of the Pacific's regional market share.

SI, Vanuatu, FLNKS, ULMWP maintain support on West Papua

They are also in support of full membership of ULMWP to the Melanesian Spearhead Group .

The MSG members said they are committed to advocating for West Papua and strongly adhere to the principles that are at the core of the Melanesian Spearhead Group, which is the ‘Political aspirations of self- determination of our Melanesian people.’

There is recognition that such a commitment will require bold and ethical leadership and a clear understanding of our Melanesian values.

MSG leaders defer West Papua membership decision

According to RNZI, the group's leaders said there was a criteria issue with the West Papuans' application, and the group's secretariat needed to establish guidelines for membership.

They said a decision would now be made when they next meet in September.

MSG chair urges UN intervention in West Papua

Mr Sogavare, who is the prime minister of Solomon Islands, has also declared his country's support for the United Liberation Movement for West Papua's bid to be a full member of the MSG.

Mr Sogavare has just been in Port Vila where he met with his Vanuatu counterpart Charlot Salwai whose proposal to give the Liberation Movement full membership at the MSG is to be discussed at an upcoming MSG leaders summit in Papua New Guinea.

MSG differences sorted, PNG to host MSG Leaders meeting

During their meeting, Prime Minister Sogavare expressed appreciation on behalf of the government and people of Solomon Islands to the Government and people of Vanuatu for backing Solomon Islands bid to host the 2023 Pacific Games.

He said with the support of Vanuatu, the other two MSG Member countries, Partners to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) from the Micronesian region and a few Polynesian countries, Solomon Islands successfully secured the hosting right for the regional games in 2023.

MSG discord over Director-General selection

Last week, Fiji's foreign minister Ratu Inoke Kubuabola said his country's Ambassador for Climate Change and Oceans, Amena Yauvoli, had been selected for the role.

RNZI reports it's over four months since the former MSG director-general Peter Forau resigned. The Solomon Islander cited a lack of budgetary support and declining commitment from member states to the group's programme.

MSG Chair to facilitate Indo-Papua discussion

West Papua has seen a low-level separatist war since Jakarta took over the former Dutch colony in the 1960s.

Solomon Islands prime minister Manasseh Sogavare made the proposal in Honiara this week to a ULMWP delegation led by their secretary general Octo Mote.

MSG Chair calls for Forum mission to Papua

The Solomon Islands prime minister made the call as he welcomed what he described as Indonesia's change of strategy on West Papua and its approach towards West Papuan separatists.