Political status and development: the implications for Australian foreign policy towards the Pacific Islands

Abstract

"Nine in every 10 Pacific islanders live in the independent countries of the region — Fiji, Kiribati,Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. The remaining tenth — almost a million people in all — live in the territories and freely associated states, where formal connections with a metropolitan state offer access to its resources and opportunities. In different ways, and with different levels of devolution of power to local governments, eight of the Pacific island entities in the Pacific community are territories of external states, and a further five Pacific island entities are freely associated with an external state." Page 1.