Fourteen Pacific parliamentary delegations gathered on Tuesday 8 September 2026 at the Assembly of French Polynesia for the opening of the first General Assembly of the Pacific Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (PIPA). This inaugural meeting comes one year after the organisation’s official creation, formalised on 28 August 2025 at Natadola, Fiji, which established Tahiti as its headquarters.
Representatives of the parliaments of Australia, Bougainville, Fiji, Hawaii, Rapa Nui, Kiribati, Niue, Palau, French Polynesia, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Wallis and Futuna were first welcomed at Taraho’i square, before joining the hemicycle for the traditional rāhiri ceremony. Each delegation had brought a braid representing its country or territory, which the presidents wove together as a symbol of unity and shared commitment to regional dialogue. In choosing to give this welcome a traditional form, the Assembly of French Polynesia sought to place this first PIPA gathering within a register that is both institutional and cultural, reflecting the ties the organisation intends to build between the peoples of the Pacific.
Following this ceremony, proceedings continued in the hemicycle with the official opening of the meeting, marked by addresses from Mr Antony Geros, President of PIPA’s General Assembly and President of the Assembly of French Polynesia, and from Lord Vaea, Acting Chair of the PIPA Board and Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Tonga.
The morning continued with the keynote address by Reverend Professor Upolu Luma Vaai, Vice-Chancellor of Pasifika Communities University (Fiji), on the theme of this first General Assembly: “A Pacific Voice in a Divided World: Parliamentary Diplomacy, Regional Unity and Global Peace.” A first thematic session followed, focused on the Pacific’s capacity for agency at a time of strategic rivalry, with contributions delivered by videoconference from Marco De Jong, lecturer at Auckland University of Technology, and Richard Balkonan, political adviser to the Melanesian Spearhead Group. Several delegations took part in the discussion, as did Inia Seruiratu, Pacific Ocean Envoy for COP31, who reported on the outcomes of the recent meeting of Pacific Islands Forum leaders in Palau.
The afternoon was devoted to the first statutory session of the General Assembly, bringing together the 14 parliamentary delegations present, including 9 full members of PIPA – Australia, Fiji, Niue, Palau, French Polynesia, Rapa Nui, Tonga, Vanuatu and Wallis and Futuna – alongside five other parliamentary delegations: Bougainville, Hawaii, Kiribati, Samoa and Tuvalu. The PIPA Board, meeting the previous day on 7 September, had examined the membership applications submitted to the General Assembly for decision: those of the Parliament of Tuvalu and the Hawaii State Legislature, for full membership, as well as that of the House of Representatives of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, for observer membership. In line with PIPA’s Statutes, decisions were taken by consensus : Tuvalu and Hawaii thus joined the organisation as full members, while Bougainville became an observer member. A fourth application, submitted by Samoa for full membership, was also examined and unanimously approved by the General Assembly during the same day, bringing the number of PIPA full member delegations to 12.
The General Assembly then addressed the chairmanship of the PIPA Board. Elected at Natadola in August 2025, Lord Fakafanua, then Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Tonga, had stepped down from his role in early 2026 after becoming Prime Minister of Tonga. The Board had subsequently appointed, in March 2026, Lord Vaea as Acting Chair, pending a decision by the General Assembly. With 11 full member delegations following the admission of Tuvalu and Hawaii, the Assembly confirmed Lord Vaea in his role by consensus.
Proceedings continued with statements from each of PIPA’s full member delegations, as well as from the observer delegation of Bougainville and the delegation of Kiribati, invited to speak at the discretion of the chair.
This first day of proceedings, marked by the admission of new members to PIPA and the confirmation of its governance, paves the way for discussions that will continue through 10 September in Papeete.
