BY JOHN HOUANIHAU
Terio Koronawa, senior policy advisor for the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat and former team leader for Regional Security, has said development is the cornerstone of the Ocean Peace Declaration.
The Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) will issue its first-ever declaration on “Ocean of Peace” during the PIFL Meeting in Honiara this week, reinforcing regional commitments to preventing militarisation, protecting oceans, and maintaining stability across the Pacific.
“The declaration recognises that development is important within the region, and if we are not able to address the insecurities within the communities, we will not be at peace,” Koronawa updated media professionals ahead of this week’s PIF.
He said that the Declaration extends beyond the strategic focus areas of the declaration.
He said that as a region, the definition of security is framed around what is called a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) declaration.
“We’re not really too focused on the traditional or the hard aspect of security, but the non-traditional, soft aspect of security, climate change, health security, economic security,” he said.
“So, the declaration builds beyond that and ensures that for us to establish peace within the communities, within the region, it’s important that we address the development issues that exist within the region,” said Koronawa.
He said that the declaration looks at how the Pacific can better manage geopolitics in terms of what’s happening within the region, which he says is easier said than done at this point.
“But it’s something that we will look at in detail in terms of what it will look like when it comes to operationalisation. The Declaration is an opportunity to tell the world who we are, our expectations in terms of security, our expectations of them when they come into the region, where we continue to advocate for peace, declaring the Pacific as a region of peace, and they should behave in ways that we behave and what we expect of them. That is essentially what the Ocean of Peace Declaration tries to put through,” he said.
He said that it recognises leaders’ commitment to what the Pacific will commit to in terms of partners coming to work within the region.