Pacific Island News

The U.S. Coast Guard has rejected comments by a Chinese diplomat that its recent boardings of Chinese fishing boats in the Pacific Islands alongside local police are illegal, saying the joint patrols are at the behest of Pacific nations to protect coastal fisheries.Reuters reported last month that six Chinese fishing boats were found to be violating Vanuatu's fisheries law after being inspected by local police who were on board the first U.S. Coast Guard boat to patrol the waters of the Pacific Islands nation.China's Ambassador to New Zealand Wang Xiaolong…

New Zealand said on Monday it will dispatch defense personnel, helicopters and a naval ship to the Solomon Islands to assist in a national election due next month, where relations with China will be a key issue.The deployment is part of a NZ$10.8 million ($6.48 million) support program for the Solomon Islands Electoral Commission announced in January and that will help transport election officers and materials around Pacific Island nations.New Zealand's foreign ministry said the vessel HMNZS Canterbury will leave Auckland on Tuesday to transport two helicopters and crew…

The IMO will open its seventh Regional Presence Office (RPO), in Suva, Fiji, after IMO Secretary-General, Arsenio Dominguez, and Fiji Minister for Transport, Ro Filipe Tuisawau, signed a Memorandum of Understanding on March 18.The Regional Presence Office will support the maritime needs and priorities of countries in the Pacific Islands region, aligning IMO actions with national and regional development policies, while providing advice on key maritime issues such as training, safety and security, legislation and marine environment.

The European Union, Canada, Japan and climate-vulnerable Pacific Island states are among 47 countries rallying support for a charge on the international shipping sector's greenhouse gas emissions, documents reviewed by Reuters showed.The documents, being discussed at an International Maritime Organization (IMO) meeting now entering a second week, outline four proposals with a combined 47 backers for imposing a fee on each tonne of greenhouse gas the industry produces.Support for…

Shipbuilding group Austal Limited announces that Austal Australia has been awarded a contract extension for the construction of two additional Evolved Cape-class Patrol Boats for the Royal Australian Navy.The A$157 million contract follows the procurement announcement made by the Commonwealth of Australia (CoA) on November 23, 2023 and brings the total number of Evolved Cape-class Patrol Boats being delivered to the Navy, under the SEA1445-1 Project, to ten.Austal Limited Chief…

On a windswept island 50 miles north of Seattle sits a U.S. Navy monitoring station. For years, it was kept busy tracking whale movements and measuring rising sea temperatures. Last October, the Navy gave the unit a new name that better reflects its current mission: Theater Undersea Surveillance Command.The renaming of the spy station at the Whidbey Island naval base is a nod to a much larger U.S. military project, according to three people with direct knowledge of the plans:…

The United States opened international aid offices in the Pacific Islands this week, bolstering support for the strategic region and pitting it more forcefully against China, which has been providing infrastructure loans to the area for years.The vast ocean region, pivotal in World War Two, is in the spotlight again amid tensions over Taiwan. Taiwanese officials this week said China, which claims the island as its territory, could launch military drills soon to intimidate voters ahead of an election next year.On Wednesday…

Canada's The Metals Company (TMC) aims to apply next year for a licence to start mining in the Pacific Ocean, with production expected to get underway by as early as the fourth quarter of 2025, it said in a statement.TMC has been at the forefront of efforts to begin extracting polymetallic nodules from the ocean floor, a nascent industry that could boost supplies of metals considered vital to the global energy transition, including nickel and cobalt.Environmental campaigners warn…

In the depths of the Pacific Ocean between Mexico and Hawaii, trillions of potato-shaped rocks are scattered across the seabed - containing minerals such as nickel, cobalt and manganese vital for new green technologies in the global energy transition.In this ocean region - the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) - an abundance of the rocks, known as polymetallic nodules, is increasingly fuelling debate about the mining of metals needed to produce technology such as batteries for electric…

On Feb. 10 last year, the cable ship CS Dependable appeared off the coast of the island of Diego Garcia, an Indian Ocean atoll that’s home to a discreet U.S. naval base.Over the next month, the ship’s crew covertly laid an underwater fiber-optic cable to the military base, an operation code-named “Big Wave,” according to four people with direct knowledge of the mission, as well as a Reuters analysis of satellite imagery and ship tracking data.The new super-fast internet link to Diego Garcia, which has not previously been reported, will boost U.S. military readiness in the Indian Ocean, a region where China has expanded its naval influence over the last decade.The CS Dependable is owned by SubCom…

Maritime nations including Denmark and the Marshall Islands are rallying support for a global carbon dioxide emissions levy on shipping, with talks at a critical stage ahead of a U.N. agency meeting next month that could back the measure.The levy could provide funds to help countries cope with climate change and help curb emissions from shipping - a sector that transports about 90% of world trade and accounts for nearly 3% of global CO2 emissions, but whose international nature means it often avoids national CO2-cutting regulations.Member countries of the U.N.

South Korea-based Asia Shipbuilding recently held the keel laying ceremony for hull number ASB – 1245 of the Pacific Island Supply Vessel, an innovative sailing cargo ship for the needs of the Republic of the Marshall Islands.The consortium of Asia Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., and the naval design company Kostec Co., Ltd., last year signed a contract with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH to deliver an innovative sailing cargo ship for the needs…

Russia's Sakhalin Energy operating company has filed a lawsuit in a Russian court over tugboats owned by Denmark's Svitzer, a unit of shipping and oil group A.P. Moller-Maersk, court documents showed on Thursday. The Russian court on the Pacific island of Sakhalin last month ordered the seizure of four tugboats belonging to Svitzer at the request of Sakhalin Energy, which claimed that the Danish company had unilaterally annulled the freight contract with it. Maersk has said it decided to exit Russia completely in March 2022 and has had an ongoing divestment process over its towage activities…

A Russian court on the Pacific island of Sakhalin has ordered the provisional seizure of four tugboats belonging to Denmark's Svitzer, the world's biggest tugboat operator, at the request of a Russian energy company. Moscow has been seizing the assets of some Western companies which have left the country or are scaling back their business there in response to the conflict in Ukraine and Western sanctions. A court ruling dated April 24 said it had ordered the tugboats seized in response to a request by Sakhalin Energy…

The Solomon Islands has awarded a multi-million-dollar contract to a Chinese state company to upgrade an international port in Honiara in a project funded by the Asian Development Bank, an official of the island nation said on Wednesday.The United States and its allies, including Australia, New Zealand and Japan, have held concerns that China has ambitions to build a naval base in the region since the Solomon Islands struck a security pact with Beijing last year."This will be upgrading the old international port in Honiara and two domestic wharves in the provinces…

Austal Limited is pleased to announce Austal Australia has delivered the fourth of eight Evolved Cape-class Patrol Boats (ECCPB’s) to the Royal Australian Navy. The vessel, ADV Cape Capricorn, was officially accepted by the Commonwealth of Australia.Austal CEO Paddy Gregg said the delivery of the fourth ECCPB highlighted Austal’s consistency in production and efficiencies at the Henderson shipyard.“Austal has now delivered four Evolved Capes to the Royal Australian Navy since the contract was signed in May 2020 and we are launching a new vessel every three months…

Member states of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), the UN agency that regulates international maritime affairs, are meeting on December 5-16 to discuss how to accelerate the industry’s climate mitigation efforts.An initial strategy – agreed in 2018, when the industry’s emissions were roughly the same as Germany’s – targeted a 50% reduction in shipping’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and included a noncommittal aim to phase out emissions in line with the 1.5℃ temperature…

Australian shipbuilding group Austal Limited announced that the Australian Government has ordered an additional Guardian-class Patrol Boat from Austal Australia for A$15.2 million.The 39.5-meter steel hull patrol boat, to be constructed in Western Australia and delivered in September 2024, is in addition to the 21 Guardian-class Patrol Boats ordered by the Australian Government under the Pacific Patrol Boat Replacement Project (SEA3036-1) in 2016.Fifteen of the 21 vessels have been delivered to 11 Pacific Island nations under the Australian Government’s Pacific Maritime Security Program…

Having recently reopened its Guam office after a three-year hiatus using a partner agent, Inchcape Shipping Services resumed direct control over all operational matters on the Pacific island.Inchcape had a permanent presence in Guam since the 1990s but opted to close its office on the Pacific island in 2018. “Given the volume of business in Guam at that time, it made better financial sense to use a partner agent instead. However, the uptick in volumes after the pandemic justified the move to reopen.

The United States and the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) on Thursday signed a remote shiprider agreement enabling the U.S. to act on behalf of the country to combat illicit maritime activity when an FSM law enforcement officer is not present.FSM is a nation with over six hundred islands in the Pacific, and the agreement provides a coordinating mechanism and process for U.S. law enforcement personnel to work with the FSM National Police through command centers to receive approval from the FSM to act.

Russia said on Thursday it was facilitating the export of grain and oilseeds from Ukraine through Russian-held transit points on the Azov Sea, without explaining who was providing the foodstuffs for export.Ukraine, like Russia one of the world's biggest exporters of grains and oilseeds, has accused Russia of stealing grain from territories in Ukraine that its forces have seized.Russian Deputy Prime Minister Viktoria Abramchenko rejected the allegation in an interview with Reuters…

A Russian-owned superyacht docked in Fiji departed for the United States on Tuesday after a court in the Pacific island nation ordered its removal, saying it was a waste of money to maintain amid legal wrangling over its seizure.The U.S. Justice Department's Taskforce KleptoCapture has focused on seizing yachts and other luxury assets of Russian oligarchs in a bid to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine.The 106-meter (350-foot) Amadea arrived in Fiji on April 13 after an 18-day voyage from Mexico. It was seized by Fiji authorities after the country's High Court granted a U.S. warrant last month that linked…

Navy vessels from Australia and New Zealand will be exempt from a temporary ban on foreign ships entering the ports of the Solomon Islands, the Pacific island nation's prime minister told parliament on Monday.Foreign military vessels responding to a request for assistance from the Solomon Islands government would also be exempt, Prime Minister Manesseh Sogavare said.The Solomon Islands signed a security pact with China in April, which a leaked draft said allows the Chinese navy to replenish in Honiara…