Sub-regional groupings to provide better support for smallest countries?
Because individual small countries are
unable to have the full range of
expertise in OFM, they might collaborate
to share OFM expertise sub-
regionally. Groupings might be based on
current FFA sub-groupings of
countries with similar challenges and
experiences, with shared EEZ borders
and shared tuna stocks. The FFA groupings
are:
(a) East Sub-Regional Group: Cook Islands,
Tokelau, Niue, Tonga, Samoa
and New Zealand (shared Polynesian
culture, political affiliations with New
Zealand etc.)
(b) West Sub-Regional Group: Papua New
Guinea, Fiji, Solomon Islands,
Vanuatu (and Australia)
(c) North Sub-Regional Group: FSM (Ponape,
Yap, Chuuk), Palau and
Marshall Islands (Micronesian, small
countries, former US affiliations), and
Nauru, Kiribati and Tuvalu
(Micronesian/Polynesian, atoll countries, former
British affiliations).
Subgroups (a) and (c) largely comprise
small, isolated island countries.
There may be benefits in separating the
two groups within (c) on geographic
and cultural grounds.