Visit by Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, Second Minister for Education and Second Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Mohamad Maliki Osman to the Kingdom of Tonga for the 53rd Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting, 26 to 29 August 2024

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office and Second Minister for Education and Foreign Affairs Dr Mohamad Maliki Osman is visiting Tonga to attend the 53^rd Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Leaders Meeting. The PIF is the key regional forum in the Pacific that seeks to foster cooperation among its members and collaboration with external partners. This is the second time that Singapore is attending the PIF Leaders Meeting as a Dialogue Partner, following our admission in January 2022.

Minister Maliki delivered remarks during the PIF Leaders’ session with Dialogue Partners on 28 August 2024. Minister Maliki highlighted that Singapore, as a fellow Small Island Developing State, understood the challenges faced by the Pacific, in particular climate change. He reaffirmed Singapore’s support for the capacity-building efforts of the Pacific, through the customised “Singapore-Pacific Resilience and Knowledge Sharing” (SPARKS) technical assistance package launched at the last PIF Leaders Meeting in November 2023. The transcript of Minister Maliki’s remarks is at Annex.

During his visit, Minister Maliki met several leaders from the Pacific, including PIF Chair and Tonga Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni, PIF Secretary General Baron Waqa, Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape, New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters, Federated States of Micronesia Secretary for Foreign Affairs Lorin S. Robert, Marshall Islands Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Kalani Kaneko, Nauru Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Lionel Aingimea and Tuvalu Minister for Foreign Affairs, Labour and Trade Paulson Panapa. Minister Maliki had good discussions with these leaders on the Pacific’s priorities and how Singapore could collaborate with them on both bilateral and multilateral fronts.

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MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

SINGAPORE

28 AUGUST 2024

Annex

MINISTER IN THE PRIME MINISTER’S OFFICE AND SECOND MINISTER FOR EDUCATION AND SECOND MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS DR MOHAMAD MALIKI OSMAN’S INTERVENTION AT THE PACIFIC LEADERS FORUM LEADERS SESSION WITH DIALOGUE PARTNERSIN NUKU’ALOFA, TONGA, 28 AUGUST 2024

Honourable Hu’akavameiliku Siaosi Sovaleni, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Tonga and Chair of the 53^rd Pacific Islands Forum (PIF),

His Excellency Baron Waqa, Secretary General of the PIF,

Excellencies,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Malo e lelei. First, let me warmly congratulate Tonga for assuming chairmanship of the PIF. I would also like to congratulate the Cook Islands on its successful chairmanship and for steering the PIF over the past year.

Your Excellencies, I address you today not just as a Dialogue Partner of the PIF, but also as a fellow member of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) who appreciates the unique challenges that we face. It is precisely this understanding that drives Singapore’s commitment to support the Pacific’s implementation of the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent. Allow me to share three points that underscore how Singapore is committed to supporting our Pacific partners.

First, addressing climate change and rising sea levels. As low-lying island states, we are at the frontline of facing rising sea levels, extreme weather events, and environment degradation. Climate change adaptation is a top priority for many of us. Singapore stands ready to share our experiences with our Pacific friends. For example, we are now planning to build a “Long Island” for coastal protection by reclaiming land at a higher level some distance away from our current coastline. Singapore wants to work together with the Pacific to address climate change by upholding and implementing the Paris Agreement, which we believe is our best hope to galvanise a collective solution to the complex, multi-dimensional problem of climate change. For the upcoming COP-29, we must continue to work together to keep the 1.5-degree Celsius goal within reach, including by reaching an ambitious outcome on a New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance, which recognises the special circumstances of SIDS.

Second, building resilient economies and societies. The theme for this year’s PIF Leaders’ Meeting – “Transformative Resilient Pasifiki: Build Better Now”— is very timely. We fully support Tonga’s priorities on building resilient health and education systems. Over the years, Singapore has conducted many capacity-building courses in health and education through the Singapore Cooperation Programme. The Programme has welcomed more than 6,100 Pacific officials over the past three decades. This year alone, we are organising seven courses on education and five courses on health. PIF members, as Small Island Developing States, will have priority access to these courses.

Your Excellencies, last year, we launched the Singapore-Pacific Resilience and Knowledge Sharing, or SPARKS, package — a specially customised three-year programme to support the Pacific’s “Regional Collective Actions” as outlined in the 2050 Strategy in three areas: climate resilience, cybersecurity and international law. I am pleased to update that we welcomed the first group of officials from the Pacific for the inaugural course on climate resilience in Singapore in May this year. The next course on international law, with a particular focus on climate and sea-level rise issues, will be held in November. We also launched the “SIDS of Change” technical assistance package at the Fourth International Conference on SIDS in May this year, which includes new customised programmes on emerging issues including blue carbon and digitalisation. We welcome our Pacific partners to participate actively in the SPARKS and SIDS of Change programmes.

Third, amplifying our collective voice. Many of the threats that we face, such as climate change and marine biodiversity loss, cannot be overcome by any single country alone. Singapore will continue working steadfastly with our Pacific partners at multilateral fora, including through the Alliance of Small Island States and the Forum of Small States, to advance our shared interests on the international stage. Singapore is honoured to work with our Pacific partners to achieve concrete progress. Last year, we successfully concluded the landmark agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction, or better known as the BBNJ Agreement. The Agreement is crucial for SIDS like us, which depend on oceans and their biodiversity for our livelihoods. It is encouraging that most of the PIF members have signed on to the Agreement. Singapore is committed to the BBNJ Agreement and will be ratifying the Agreement very soon.

Your Excellencies, to conclude, Singapore has been a longstanding and steadfast supporter of the Pacific’s development. During the third Singapore-Pacific High-Level Visit hosted by Singapore in May this year, I was encouraged by the Pacific leaders’ strong commitment to turn vision into action. Singapore will continue to do our part to ensure that no one is left behind in our journey towards creating a better tomorrow for our people.

Malo ‘aupito. Thank you very much.

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Minister in Prime Minister's Office, Second Minister for Foreign Affairs and Second Minister for Education Dr Maliki Osman delivering remarks at the 53^rd Pacific Island Forum Leaders Meeting in Tonga, 28 August 2024.

Photo Credit: Ministry of Foreign Affairs Singapore