BY JOHN HOUANIHAU
The Solomon Islands plays an important part in the European Union’s (EU) relationship with the Pacific.
The Ambassador of the European Union (EU) to the Pacific, Barbara Plinkert said her engagement with the local media on Saturday, November 2 at the Mendana Hotel.
As part of her engagement, Barbara Plinkert presented her credentials to the Governor-General of Solomon Islands, Reverend David Tiva Kapu, in Honiara on Thursday, October 31.
She also met with senior members of the government and partners, launched an EU-funded project and visited some EU-funded projects in the Solomon Islands during her three days stay in Honiara.
“We have the largest envelope of development cooperation here in the Solomon Islands, which amounted to 46 million euros in the last four years. So, this is quite significant,” said Mrs Plinkert.
She adds that there is a lot of cooperation between Solomon Island EU and it and it was extremely good to review this cooperation and to discuss it with the government in its various stakeholders.
“You know, the way forward and how it’s going where we can do more, where we can shift attention and so on. our relations with the Solomon Islands are multifaceted on many levels. We are very close partners on the multilateral front.
“For example, we’ve been always very grateful for the support of the Solomon Islands when it comes to the war in Ukraine, condemning Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. We’ve always been grateful for the support that we have been given from Solomon Islands,” she said.
According to Ambassador Plinkert, another topic in the multilateral context is of course always climate change.
“Climate change is such a huge topic and I’ve been able to verify this also in my days here in Honiara and outside Honiara and we visit a project on how important this issue is and what serious threat this is for the security and the livelihoods of this country,” she said.
“So, it’s a topic that we are discussing also at the multilateral level. The COP 29 is coming up and I think the Pacific has always been able to count on the European Union’s support in addressing this issue and supporting the initiatives from the Pacific when it comes to loss and damage,” said Plinkert.
She said that the European Union is globally the largest contributor to climate finance when it comes to climate finance.
“The European Union is globally the largest contributor to climate finance and also in our bilateral cooperation with the Solomon Islands and our regional level cooperation with the Pacific,” she said.
