The Region in Review: International Issues and Events, 2020

Abstract

The Region in Review:International Issues and Events, 2020 Nic Maclellan (bio) The global Coronavirus Disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic dominated regional and international politics throughout 2020. Despite many Pacific countries avoiding the worst impacts, the pandemic highlighted social, political, and economic inequalities, with many vulnerable communities affected by overburdened health systems, changes in food production, and disruption of the formal and informal economy. In the Pacific, there were significant economic impacts from closed borders, reduced international aviation, disrupted supply lines, and a collapse of cheap tourism (Tevi 2020). However, by closing borders, drawing on international support, and mobilizing local culture and capacity, some Island states reported no confirmed cases of covid-19 by year's end, and most avoided the catastrophe seen in Europe, the United States, and many larger developing nations. As Pacific governments turned inward to protect their own citizens, there were stresses and strains in the organizations that make up the Council of Regional Organizations of the Pacific (crop). International and regional bodies postponed face-to-face leaders' meetings, including crucial gatherings such as the annual Pacific Islands Forum (pif) and the twenty-sixth Conference of the Parties (cop26) under the United Nations (UN) Framework Convention on Climate Change, scheduled for Glasgow, Scotland, in November 2020. Throughout the year, leaders highlighted the triple challenge of health, economy, and environment: the impact on medical systems and the hazard of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus combined with comorbidities such as obesity and diabetes; the loss of revenues and taxation for government, with significant stimulus packages adding to national debt levels; changes in remittance flows, employment, and labor mobility in national and regional labor markets; and, above all, the ongoing climate emergency, symbolized by Tropical Cyclones Harold and Yasa. During this complex year, the challenges facing Island governments and communities were overlaid by heightened geopolitical tensions. It was a year of increased US-China jousting, combined with a crisis of democracy in the United States during and after the presidential election that saw the victory of Democrat candidate Joe Biden over incumbent President Donald Trump. Throughout 2020, the Trump administration sought to rally allies like Australia, New Zealand, Japan, France, and India in an effort to contain China's influence in the Islands region. However, most independent Forum Island Countries sought to maintain a foreign policy of "friends to all, enemies to none" and were reluctant to choose sides in this sharpening geopolitical crisis. The pandemic highlighted the interconnections of humanity across the globe. On 6 March, a cruise ship [End Page 500] passenger returning to Hawai'i was diagnosed with the SARS-CoV-2 novel coronavirus. The same day, French Polynesia's representative to the French National Assembly, Maina Sage, returned to Tahiti from Paris infected with the virus after meeting the French education minister, who was later diagnosed with covid-19. Within days, Sage was quarantined in her home. The first coronavirus-related death in the Pacific was announced in Guåhan (Guam) on 22 March, after a patient in the US territory was diagnosed with covid-19 on 15 March. With memories of the post–World War I influenza pandemic and more contemporary outbreaks of infectious disease, Pacific governments quickly closed international borders to overseas travelers in February and March 2020. By April, states and territories reported small numbers of returning nationals and overseas staff in quarantine, avoiding the widespread community transmission evident in many larger nations. Due to prompt action to ban cruise ships, strengthen quarantine systems, and boost border controls, many smaller countries, including the Cook Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Tokelau, Tonga, and Tuvalu, reported no cases of infection throughout the year. By year's end, Vanuatu and the Federated States of Micronesia had just one case each, and Sāmoa two. In contrast, a much greater number of confirmed cases of covid-19 occurred in French Polynesia, Guåhan, Hawai'i, West Papua, Rapa Nui, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Kanaky New Caledonia, all of them colonial dependencies that do not fully control their borders. French Polynesia had just four cases in April, May, and June, but when France reopened its borders on 15 July, a surge of tourists and returning...