Pacific leaders meet here this week
By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer
When the leaders of about 15 Pacific island governments gather in Honolulu Thursday to discuss lingering problems and their role in international security challenges, they hope the leader of their most powerful neighbor will be there to hear their concerns.
President Bush has been invited to the seventh Pacific Islands Conference of Leaders, a meeting hosted periodically by the East-West Center since 1980. Usually the conference is held every three years, which would make the seventh meeting due in early 2004. However, worries about global security since the 9-11 attacks have prompted planners to accelerate the timetable.
"The theme for the conference is enhancement of unity and human dignity, focusing on our common security in the region," said Sitiveni Halapua, director of the Pacific Islands Development Program, the East-West Center branch that is organizing the two-day event.
Before the terrorist strikes two years ago, Pacific island nations were "never on the radar scope" when security concerns were discussed, said center president Charles Morrison.
But now that virtually every country is viewed as a potential target for global terrorism, he said, all nations are expected to provide stricter scrutiny over transport of people and cargo — an expectation calling for resources that some of the tiny Pacific states simply don't have.
"That means having certain equipment and skills," he said. "One piece of equipment, it costs up to $3 million, or even $10 million, and that's a lot of money for an island."
Morrison said the conference is planning for President Bush to attend closed-door meetings with other leaders on Thursday, although no confirmation about his itinerary has been received.
Details of the trip have been under wraps because of security concerns, but Bush is expected to arrive Thursday morning, attend a fund-raiser for the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign committee that evening in Waikiki and then likely be back on Air Force One that night for the trip home.
Even if Bush doesn't attend, there's a lot of territory to cover, Halapua said — and though he wasn't referring to the geographic sprawl, the great distances between islands within single political entities is one of the problems common across the Pacific.
For example, Morrison said, to get to Christmas Island (Kiritimati) from elsewhere in the Republic of Kiribati, one must fly to Honolulu and that would mean getting a visa, which can be a complicated process.
And since 9-11, what were once considered only internal problems for individual nations — drug trafficking and political unrest — are seen as common security issues, Halapua said.
"Before, we would discuss 'domestic problems' and 'international problems', but that divide is very blurred now," he said. "If you're unstable domestically, you likely will be a risk internationally."
Some of the delegations attending may have their own side meetings to discuss individual issues — such as changes in the Micronesian and Marshall Islands compacts with the United States — but the agenda this week will be dominated by regional concerns. A joint statement summarizing the proceedings will be released Friday.
The East-West Center researchers have the chance to present their work, on subjects such as the effects of global warming on submergence of low-lying islands, directly to government leaders who can influence the direction of the research, said Gerard Finin, a research fellow and assistant director of the center's Pacific program.
And, Halapua said, this conference is sponsored by an independent academic organization and thus enables an exchange much less governed by protocols of individual countries than other, government-run summits.
"There, they're giving stated government positions," he said. "Here, it's conversation ... it's getting to know one another and at the same time sharing our views and feelings."
Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.
