Around the world: PNG emerging as a central player at Pacific Islands Forum, and other international stories

Welcome,

Papua New Guinea role at the Pacific Islands Forum, Papuan self-determination and Australia’s asylum-seeker deal featured in the media this week.

World 02In the lead up to the Pacific Islands Leaders Forum in the Marshall Islands early next month, Jenny Hayward-Jones considers how the balance of power in the region is shifting- with PNG emerging as a central figure.

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As Pacific Island leaders seek to assert themselves on the international stage, the Jakarta Globe reports that Indonesia’s President  Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ‘has sought to quell growing support for Papuan self-determination among Indonesia’s Pacific island neighbours’.

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Jo Chandler assesses the asylum-seeker deal with Australia from a PNG perspective, on the BBC website.

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Meanwhile things are looking up for the region’s fishermen. Giff Johnson, Editor of the Marshall Islands Journal, tells Geraldine Coutts countries that are parties to the Nauru Agreement are starting to reap the benefit of better management of their fishing grounds.

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Time magazine has published a feature entitled ‘Five Reasons to Visit Papua New Guinea’, describing it as ‘one of the last true frontiers of travel’.

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Think business is tough? Spare a thought for Russian entrepreneurs who are more likely to end up on the wrong side of the law than the common burglar. But The Age says a reprieve may be on the way in the form of an unlikely stimulus package.