PUBLIC DIPLOMACY ACTION PLAN PROMOTES PACIFIC ISLANDS

UNCLAS SUVA 000250 PLEASE PASS TO EAP ACTING A/S DAVIES E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR KDEM FJ SUBJECT: PUBLIC DIPLOMACY ACTION PLAN PROMOTES PACIFIC ISLANDS DEMOCRACIES AND STRENGTHENS CIVIL SOCIETY REF: A) Suva 31 B) Suva 215 ¶1. Since the election of President Obama, Pacific Island media has portrayed the United States in unprecedented favorable terms. We plan to further promote U.S. values and objectives through a variety of targeted public diplomacy activities. These initiatives will promote the development of democratic institutions, the rule of law, a free and vibrant media, and understanding of regional environmental issues. Many of these activities, particularly PACOM's Pacific Partnership 2009 and U.S. Coast Guard maritime security cooperation, will demonstrate our close coordination with Australia and New Zealand as well as multilateral institutions such as the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC). ¶2. Regarding Fiji, these activities also reflect the interim government's exclusion from U.S. programs. Without specifically mentioning Fiji, we will be able to demonstrate the cost of lost opportunities resulting from the coup and the interim government's intransigence toward returning to democracy and a duly-elected civilian government. At the same time, we will continue to identify programs to help strengthen an independent judiciary and rule of law by working with Fijian civil society (reftel Suva 31). ¶3. Following are key public diplomacy activities occurring through the remainder of the fiscal year: June 10: Placement on the Embassy website of the "United States' View on Democracy and Fiji," using the Ambassador's position and President Obama's key messages on democracy and human rights from his speech in Cairo. Embassy foresees this statement, regularly updated, to remain on the website for an indeterminate period. June 10-26: The PAS will conduct interviews of Pacific islanders competing for Fulbright Scholarship and Humphrey Fellowship interviews at Embassies Suva and Port Moresby. July 4: Celebrate our Independence Day in Tonga, a constitutional monarchy, as an opportunity to reaffirm our bilateral relationship and acknowledge and encourage its progress toward democratic reform. Announce the formal agreement to conduct remote non immigrant visa (NIV) processing through the laptop NIV program in office space provided by the Government of Tonga. July 13: A group discussion event, showing the Supreme Court Sonia Sotomayor hearings to members of the legal community in Fiji, including judges, to highlight the importance of a truly independent judiciary. July 13 - September 18: U.S. Navy ship, the _Richard E. Byrd_, visits five Pacific Island countries as part of the "Pacific Partnership" program. Navy personnel will deliver medical and constructions supplies and work with each host country on a series of community development projects. Post is working with PACOM--and in individual cases, Australian and New Zealand representatives--to ensure that knowledge of the humanitarian outreach aspects of the program reach a broad audience. Individual country visits are as follows: Samoa, Jun 30-Jul 11 (not in PAS AOR) Tonga, Jul 14-26 New Caledonia, Jul 30-Aug 2 (R&R only) Solomon Islands, Aug 5-19 Kiribati, Aug 23-Sep 5 Marshall Islands, Sep 7-18 July 9-16: Embassy and other USG representatives attend the 30th anniversary of Kiribati's independence, which will also be a precursor to the 30th anniversary of Kiribati's Treaty of Friendship with the United States. July 23: Peace Corps Fiji swearing-in provides media opportunities to demonstrate our commitment to the people of Fiji through our engagement at the grassroots level. July 27-29: PAS is collaborating with the Pacific Island News association to bring a speaker/trainer to the annual Pacific Media Summit in Vanuatu. More than 200 journalists and media professionals will attend from around the Region. August: Secretariat for the Pacific Community (SPC) Maritime exercise, which will be in Cairns, Australia, was rescheduled from Nadi to allow for the use of United States, Australian, and New Zealand assets constrained by Fiji sanctions. The U.S. Coast Guard recently signed an MOU with SPC to coordinate maritime security cooperation in the region. August 3: Tongan King George Tupou V's birthday provides a further opportunity to promote enhanced bilateral relations, goodwill with the people of Tonga, and democracy. August 4-7: The 40th Pacific Islands Forum in Cairns, Australia, provides rich opportunities to reengage with individual Pacific island nations and to reaffirm our commitment to the region. August 10-17: Strategic Speaker Morey Wolfson, of the Colorado Governor's Energy Office, will speak on energy use and climate change in Fiji and Papua New Guinea. August mid: Commencement of ongoing EAP-wide grant program managed by the Regional Environmental Officer to address sustainability issues in the live reef food-fish trade funded by OES. August 23-25: Ambassador travels to Tonga to sign the sixth Shiprider Agreement in the Region, which will complete the current phase of negotiations (reftel Suva 215). Shiprider agreements enhance coordination with Australia, New Zealand, and France to improve maritime security throughout the Region. September 1-11: In collaboration with the Department (IIP) the PAS is bringing noted Nightline journalist Lea Thompson to conduct one-week investigative reporting workshops in Fiji and Papua New Guinea. September late: PAO travels to the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia to train and work with newly arrived and newly hired staff on public diplomacy issues in the Freely Associated States. Summer: PAS has employed a summer-hire university student to establish an Embassy Facebook page or blogsite and to review the appropriateness of other "new media" for implementation in the Pacific. During the remainder of the fiscal year we will actively continue to work in traditional PD areas such as educational advising, exchange programs, media placements and small grants.