Overview

This discussion paper results from a speech prepared for the keynote address at the 2016 State of the Pacific Conference, held at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, Australia, 13–15 September. In it Dr Aqorau discusses the state of regional cooperative affairs in the Pacific Islands, particularly with respect to fisheries, through his own observations, but not as he puts it ‘an academic sweep of our complex region. I want it to be rooted in the perceptions and experiences of an Islander!’