Kiribati Set to Return to PIF – Thanks to Prime Minister Rabuka
Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka must be commended for successfully persuading Kiribati to return to the Pacific Islands Forum. In his first overseas State visit, he arrived in Tarawa on January 20 and later met with Kiribati President Taneti Maamau for official talks about getting the small island nation to rejoin PIF after withdrawing as member from it last year.
This was not an easy mission for Mr Rabuka. He had to master all the communication skills and diplomatic experience he had acquired over years and of course use his charisma to convince President Maamau that Kiribati would not gain anything by staying out of the PIF.
Mr Rabuka’s trip was the second attempt by Fiji to get Kiribati to change its mind. His predecessor, Voreqe Bainimarama, now the Opposition Leader, reached out to President Maamau last year but was given the cold shoulder.
Mr Bainimarama was then the chair for the PIF and was later defeated in the December election. Mr Rabuka had only been PM for less than a month when he took on the Kiribati assignment, prompting some to question his priorities because of more pressing domestic matters to deal with.
Mr Rabuka, with the benefit of his experience as a former Prime Minister, knows that while Kiribati may be a small island state, it nevertheless is important for regional solidarity. And when he hands over the PIF chair to Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown this year, the PIF is united again.
So within the short time Mr Rabuka has been PM, he has made an incredible achievement. Henry Puna, the PIF secretary general and former Prime Minister of the Cook Islands, will be joined by other regional leaders in thanking Mr Rabuka for his efforts.
The PIF, moving forward, needs to be one to have a strong voice at international forums on major issues like climate change and post-COVID-19 recovery and to combat trans-national crime, human trafficking and the illicit drug trade. Unity will strengthen regional co-operation on defence and security. It will protect small island states like Kiribati.
There was a scare a few days earlier when a media report said Mr Puna was interested to carry on after his contract expires next year. He was the centre of a row that eventually led to Kiribati pulling out of PIF last year. His appointment in 2021 was opposed by five members of the Micronesian sub-region. Kiribati was one of them. The others were Nauru,Palau, Federated of Micronesia and Marshall Islands. They contended that the job should go to somebody from Micronesia.
They threatened to pull out of PIF. After some frantic talks in shuttle diplomacy orchestrated by Fiji, the members of Micronesia minus Kiribati signed a deal in Suva in July last year after concessions were agreed for the job to be rotated. The Micronesian nominee will take over from Mr Puna next year. In the latest incident, Mr Puna has clarified that he is not eyeing a second term. He said in a Radio New Zealand interview: “I’m enjoying this job so much. Yes. It’d be nice to continue in the role. But it is up to the leaders. And I guess also, it’s up to how I can perform over the next year.
He has since told reporters in Solomon Islands he hasn’t done anything in order to seek an extension, because that would be disrespectful of the leaders’ position.
Mr Puna was confident Mr Rabuka would pull off the Kiribati mission. It would make his job easier of organising projects for the region in his last two years. For Mr Rabuka, it’s his first major achievement since ascending to the top job for the second time.
NEMANI DELAIBATIKI
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