The region’s peak political body, the Pacific Islands Forum, has welcomed Israel as its newest foreign partner.
Israel has been added to the Forum as a sectoral partner. It says it’ll work with Pacific countries on water management, desalination, agriculture and climate change adaptation.
The Forum has 21 dialogue partners and 1 development partner in Taiwan, Israel’s inclusion adds to a table of partners for the Forum to collaborate with.
But the new partnership is dividing opinion, and some Pacific civil society groups are raising concerns about how transparent the decision was.
Coordinator for The Pacific Network on Globalisation Joey Tau says these groups are asking for clarity on the decision as well as acknowledgement of their reservations towards the partnership.
“How do we inform regionalism moving forward when we have stakeholders at the same table who are the root causes of some of these issues?” He said.