PNG application to join Austronesian Forum ratifiedBy Yang Mian-chieh and Jason Pan / Staff reportersAn application by Papua New Guinea (PNG) to join the Austronesian Forum was approved at an executive council meeting at the Grand Hotel in Taipei on Monday, while Canada and Australia joined as observers. Launched in 2002, the forum began formal collaborative work with 12 Pacific island nations in 2018. Council of Indigenous Peoples Minister Icyang Parod, center, poses for a group photograph with foreign representatives at an Austronesian Forum executive committee meeting at the Grand Hotel in Taipei on Monday. Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei TimesThe forum’s headquarters was inaugurated in Palau on Sept. 30 last year at its annual executive council meeting. “In that meeting, it was decided to hold the Austronesian Forum and the executive council meeting in Hawaii in June this year,” Icyang said.

Source: Taipei Times November 24, 2020 15:56 UTC