US President Joe Biden, center, stands for a group photo with Pacific Islands Forum leaders following the Pacific Islands Forum Summit, at the South Portico of the White House in Washington on September 25, 2023. Photo: Jim Watson
The Pacific Islands Forum secretary general says time will tell if the US will follow through with its latest Pacific funding pledge.
Henry Puna has just arrived back in Fiji after the second US/Pacific summit in Washington where he met President Joe Biden.
"It's something you only read about when you are growing up as a kid at school and to actually be there was just like a dream come true," Puna said.
$US200 million of new aid was promised this year.
But Australia's Lowy Institute Pacific Island Programs director Meg Keen told Reuters that Congress is still yet to approve most of the US$810 million in funding pledges made last year.
Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
When questioned over why the US is operating at a snail's pace Mr Puna said there are certain issues that are beyond him.
"The discussions have been ongoing, and will continue to be ongoing in order to bring to life, you know, the commitments that America has made to our leaders," Puna said.
Puna said Solomon Islands will still benefit from the US/Pacific summit despite its prime minister not attending.
Manasseh Sogavare has complained that leaders, in the past, had not been given enough time to be heard.
He said he avoided the summit because he didn't want to be lectured to.
However, the United States National Security Council senior director for Oceania, Dr Mira Rapp-Hooper, described the conversations between President Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Pacific Island leaders as collaborative, constructive, forward looking and said they involved an incredible amount of listening by U.S government officials.
Henry Puna said Sogavare's absence certainly wasn't held against Solomon Islands in Washington.
"The fact that Prime Minister Sogavare was not at the second US/Pacific summit does not in any way affect their capacity or ability to receive assistance from the US," Puna said.
He said Solomon Islands and Kiribati are expected to benefit 'a lot' from the aid package offered by the US.
The former president of Nauru Baron Waqa. Photo: AFP
Baron Waqa
With the countdown now on till the Pacific Islands Forum leaders' meeting in Rarotonga, a question mark still remains over who will take over from Henry Puna when his term is up.
This is expected to be set in stone in the Cook Islands.
Mr Puna said Baron Waqa remains on track to be his successor:
"That is fact. That is correct...the leaders have decided, and I guess at the special retreat last February in Denarau.
"They decided that Baron Waqa will succeed me as secretary general.
He said that he 'coincidentally' met Baron Waqa at a market in Fiji last week.
"It was good to see him and his wife," Puna said.
Puna refused to comment on whether he supports Waqa being appointed to the role, saying it is up to the leaders to decide.
The Waqa appointment was made as part of a raft of measures to repair a rift that had threatened to sink the regional body.
Questions have since been raised around the appointment process by president of Palau, Surangel Whipps Jr, The Federated States of Micronesia's former president David Panuelo and Samoa's prime minister Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa.
Waqa is a former president of Nauru and has been heavily criticised by rights campaigners over his treatment of the hundreds of asylum seekers placed on Nauru by Australia.
An aerial photo shows the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Incorporated in Fukushima Prefecture on 24 August 2023. Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant had started to release treated water stored within the premises of the plant into the ocean on the same day. Photo: TAKUYA MATSUMOTO / AFP
Fukushima
Another contentious issue that's simmering is Japan's Fukushima decommissioning process.
More than one-million tonnes of treated nuclear wastewater from the wrecked Fukushima power plant is slowly being discharged into the Pacific Ocean.
There are more than one-thousand tanks storing water that was used to cool the plant after the 2011 nuclear accident.
"As long as it's ongoing, there will be ongoing concerns from our people," Puna said.
Henry Puna reaffirmed the Forum's commitment to make sure the UN nuclear regulator and Japan is accountable.
The International Atomic Energy Agency is onsite to monitor the progress of the release, while Japan has said it has measures in place to maintain the releases safety.
"We will hold them to that commitment," Puna said.
In a statement, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) said the treated water release from the second lot of tanks started October 5th, Japan time.
"This morning (October 5), we decided to proceed to the second stage in the light of weather/sea conditions," the TEPCO statement said.
"We started up the seawater transfer pumps at 10:18 which marked the commencement of the discharge into the sea."
Henry Puna said Forum leaders are keeping an eye on the decades-long process.
