PIF (Pacific Islands Forum)

The Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) is a regional political and economic grouping of states and territories in Oceania. It was founded in 1971 as the South Pacific Forum and renamed the Pacific Islands Forum in 2000 to better reflect its geographic scope, which spans the North and South Pacific. Its secretariat is headquartered in Suva, Fiji.

Membership comprises 18 states and territories, including Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga, the Cook Islands, Niue, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, Palau, Kiribati, Nauru, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, French Polynesia, and New Caledonia. The Forum operates by consensus through annual Leaders' Meetings, supplemented by ministerial meetings and a Secretary-General who serves as its chief administrative officer.

The PIF is the main vehicle through which small island developing states (SIDS) in the Pacific project a collective voice in global negotiations, particularly on climate change. The 2018 Boe Declaration on Regional Security identified climate change as the single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security, and wellbeing of the peoples of the Pacific. The Forum has also produced the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent, adopted in 2022, which sets out a long-term vision across political leadership, people-centred development, resource and economic development, climate, ocean and environment, technology, and peace and security.

PIF members frequently coordinate positions ahead of UNFCCC Conferences of the Parties and within the UN General Assembly, often aligning with the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS). The Forum has also handled regional crises through mechanisms such as the Biketawa Declaration (2000), which underpinned the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI, 2003–2017). Internal tensions emerged in 2021 when the five Micronesian states announced intent to withdraw over a leadership dispute, later resolved through the 2022 Suva Agreement.