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Pacific Islands focus: health, environmental, security and geopolitical updates

Melissa Sweet
Isabelle Zhu-Maguire
Friday, August 29, 2025

Pacific Islands focus, Heatwaves, Environmental determinants of health, Infectious diseases, Women's health, Global health, Violence

Calls to tackle violence against women in the Pacific region, efforts to alleviate the impacts of extreme heat, new guidelines to assist in protection of whales, and concerns about deep sea mining are among the topics covered in the latest edition of our regular column, Pacific Islands focus.

Isabelle Zhu-Maguire, PhD candidate at the Coral Bell School of Asia and Pacific Affairs, Department of International Relations within the Australian National University, also previews the upcoming annual Pacific Islands Forum leaders meeting, saying it “will be an interesting one to watch”.

The quotable?

For a region internationally renowned for its regionalism, it can be upsetting to watch these arguments emerge, largely driven by geopolitical agendas.”

Isabelle Zhu-Maguire writes:

This semester I have the absolute pleasure of tutoring for a brilliant undergraduate course on Pacific Politics at the Australian National University.

Now it is not an understatement to say that this job is my dream come true and a privilege. I imagine that getting to teach this type of course at the ANU means that I have a direct influence over Australia’s next diplomats, aid workers, auditors and even tourists in the Pacific. Hence, I want to do a good job!

I have been astounded to see the way that many students are throwing themselves into this course. During my undergraduate degree less than 10 years ago, my interest in the Pacific was an anomaly.

My students, most of whom have no personal connections to the Pacific, now see that there is value in understanding the region. Whilst this is largely driven by geopolitical gripes being recently well documented in Australian media and the threat of climate change to Pacific Islands, my students seem extremely willing to appreciate the complexity, ambiguity and ongoing colonial legacies seen in Pacific politics. They have been willing to challenge their current understandings of the region and explore the external factors driving the narratives they have been fed about the Pacific.

One useful teaching tool I have implemented is ten minutes of sharing Pacific news at the start of each class. This has encouraged students to read about what is happening in the region outside of class and has been a fruitful ground for nuanced, challenging and intellectually stimulating conversations about the challenges facing the Pacific.

This is very much in line with the reason why I write these monthly Pacific Islands Focus columns – to disrupt the more monotone narratives Australians often receive about the region.

This month I cover some of the key health news updates and studies from the Pacific, highlight some of the environmental discussions being had, and attempt to distil some of the large pieces of Pacific security and regional governance news from August.

Health news and research reports

In June this year, I highlighted in this column that two polio cases were reported in Papua New Guinea raising concerns about a re-emergence of the disease. In August, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that there have now been more than 31 cases, as PNG launched a new immunisation campaign in the capital Port Moresby.

Dengue fever also continues to make headlines this month. Samoa’s Ministry of Health confirmed that a sixth child has died due to dengue during August. In total, almost 8,000 cases of dengue have been clinically diagnosed in Samoa. Cases have been identified in American Samoa, Tonga, French Polynesia, Kiribati and Tuvalu, Samoa, the Cook Islands, Nauru, and Fiji. ABC Pacific reported that Fiji has been the worst-hit among Pacific countries this year, reporting more than 14,000 suspected cases and 11,000 lab-confirmed cases.

Nauru saw its sixth annual meeting of the regional working group on the implementation of family protection and domestic violence legislation. What was once again highlighted in this meeting was that there is a ‘pandemic’ of violence against women in the Pacific with almost 70 percent of Pacific women and girls experiencing gender-based violence – almost double the global average. The working group has called for the strengthening of domestic violence laws across the region. This meeting also came days after a very disturbing video went viral showing a young woman being harassed by a large group of men at the University of PNG.

Niue households are participating in a global study on how to reduce the impact of extreme heat on health in cost effective ways. A select number of houses will have their roofs painted white and subsequent health outcomes recorded and compared with households without the painted roofs. The researchers are from University of Auckland’s Centre for Pacific and Global Health and their results are expected early next year.

An Aotearoa-New Zealand report found that Pasifika and Māori are dying of heart disease a decade earlier than Pākeha. The report from Otago University found that Pacifika has the highest hospitalisation rates due to heart issues in Aotearoa while rates for all other ethnic groups have declined. The report authors suggest that specific resources to reduce rates of smoking and increase regular GP visits would assist in reducing these numbers.

In the Solomon Islands, Save the Children has supported a government proposal to review the country’s legal age for marriage. In the Solomon Islands currently, people can be married at 15 with parental consent. Save the Children is advocating for the minimum age to be raised to 18, saying that marriage at young ages hinders physical, emotional and educational development and wellbeing.

Finally, Fiji Cancer Society has revealed that newly diagnosed patients are being told to buy their own chemotherapy medications or go without. According to media reports, chemotherapy drugs for children cost more than FJ$40,000. Severe drug shortages in the country are being blamed for this issue.

Balancing industry and ecology in the Cook Islands

Earlier this month, on the sidelines of the 60th anniversary of self-governance celebrations, the Cook Islands and the US formally agreed to work together on the exploration of deep sea mining. This comes after the Cook Islands signed a five-year agreement with the People’s Republic of China to similarly cooperate on expiration and research on the seabed minerals found in the Cook Islands exclusive economic zone.

This proliferation of agreements has come as the Cook Islands comes to the end of its current five-year seabed minerals exploration phase. The Cook Islands has one of the largest Exclusive Economic Zones in the region containing an estimated 6.7 billion tonnes of precious minerals.

However, Cook Islands’ elders and environmentalists are sounding alarms, not convinced that the research phase has found that deep sea mining will be completely harmless. French President Emmanuel Macron similarly voiced opposition to any rush to exploit these deposits, calling the industry “predatory“.

The Cook Islands too have been grappling with how to ensure their tourism industry remains sustainable, both economically and environmentally. At those 60th anniversary talks, the US representatives also acknowledged how important growth in Cook Islands’ tourism is for the Island state. In 2024, the Cooks Islands saw tourism almost completely bounce back to pre-COVID visitor numbers, which peaked in 2019 with 170,000 visitors.

However, local tourism industry workers like Muri Beach Club Hotel general manager Liana Scott are concerned about the impact this growth has on the pristine beaches of the Cook Islands. Scott told RNZ Pacific that in 2019, it felt like the Cook Islands was ‘bursting at the seams’ and that she has particular concerns about litter. However, Scott also highlighted that the increase of more varied tourism activities across the Islands will mean that the strain on the environment in certain places may be alleviated.

This month also saw the Cook Islands announce new guidelines and licensing requirements for those working in the ‘whale watch’ industry. These guidelines reflect growing consciousness of how whale watching and swimming disturb the whales and hopefully will provide more time for the whales to rest and eat in peace.

Security agreements and foreign investment

In early August three Australian cabinet members did a short diplomatic tour of the Pacific. Minister for Defence Richard Marles first went to Papua New Guinea where it was revealed that Australia’s initial $175 million commitment to help PNG expand its Lombrum naval base had now ballooned in cost significantly to $500 million. Delays due to COVID have been blamed for the blowout.

Marles was then joined by Minister for Foreign Affairs Senator Penny Wong and Minister for Pacific, International Development and Defence Industries Pat Conroy ( in Vanuatu where they signed a $500 million security agreement atop of an active volcano, Mount Yasur. This Nakamal (a ni-Vanuatu word for meeting place) Agreement will replace a previous security pact that was scrapped in 2022. Despite a concerted effort from Vanuatu, this deal did not include visa-free travel to Australia for people from Vanuatu.

Discussion of the Cook Islands’ agreements was also in the spotlight this month. The Chinese ambassador to New Zealand, Cook Islands and Niue visited the Cook Islands, addressing the media about the 2025-2030 Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the two countries. Dr Wang Xiaolong assured onlookers that “it has nothing to do with military or security agenda” and is rather an economic agreement that will prioritise transparency.

This month also saw the US’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) open a new office in the Cook Islands. The new office will have a specific focus on terrorism, cybercrime and fraud, organised crime and money laundering, child exploitation, and foreign intelligence threats.

Finally a Chinese company called the China Rural Revitalisation and Development Corporation (CRRDC) and the Government of Nauru have signed an AU$1 billion project proposal. The ABC reported that it was not “able to track down any information about the company, and Pacific analysts say that scale of investment doesn’t seem plausible for Nauru”. This has caused some attention in Canberra as Australia and Nauru signed a treaty last year, promising to provide ongoing budget and security support in return for effective veto power of decisions on national security.

Exclusions at the Pacific Islands Forum

Next month, the Solomon Islands will host the annual Pacific Islands Forum leaders meeting. This yearly meeting is the most significant regional governance event for the Pacific and has been the site of significant geopolitical tensions in recent years, all coming to a head at the forum last year with a media and diplomatic circus erupting when a communique on relations with Taiwan was released by PIF and then removed.

In early August there was speculation that Solomon Islands could exclude Taiwan, China, the United States and other countries from the upcoming meeting. This came as Chinese officials were apparently placing pressure on Honiara to exclude Taiwan from the talks and also after the Solomon Islands refused to issue visas to Taiwanese officials earlier this year.

About 10 days after these speculations were making their rounds in Australian media, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele’s proposal to indeed exclude these foreign partners was approved by the Pacific Islands Forum Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Fiji.

Reactions to this announcement from the region have been mixed. Samoa was very quick to support the decision as Samoa’s caretaker Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa had threatened to boycott the meeting if Solomon Islands blocked Taiwan.

Former Pacific Islands Forum advisor Sione Tekiteki told RNZ’s Pacific Waves program that he believed there was nothing stopping external apartments from attending the forum meeting and conducting bilateral talks on the side of the conference.

Several Pacific nations have been critical of the move. Palau’s President Surangel Whipps Jr called it “a missed opportunity” not to have important partners there to discuss matters like development. Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine urged Manele to reconsider his decision saying that it will “hurt” Pacific nations to not have their partners present. I note that both Palau and the Marshall Islands are in Free Association with the United States.

For a region internationally renowned for its regionalism, it can be upsetting to watch these arguments emerge, largely driven by geopolitical agendas. Next month’s Pacific Islands Forum meeting will be an interesting one to watch and I am certain it will feature prominently in my next column.

About the author

Isabelle Zhu-Maguire is a PhD candidate at the Coral Bell School of Asia and Pacific Affairs, Department of International Relations within the Australian National University. Her thesis investigates the ways in which Australia listens and responds to the climate advocacy of Pacific Island Nations.

She has conducted extensive research into the experiences of women in Afghanistan and their perspectives and realities living through conflict, oppression, and climate change.

Isabelle has also been advocate for greater youth inclusion within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

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