By Bernadette H. Carreon
Horizon news staff

The Eighth Pacific Island Conference of Leaders concluded this week in Washington, DC.
Twenty Pacific Island countries head of states signed a joint communiqué after a four-day meeting.
The conference discussed various issues affecting the region which includes national security, environmental protection, climate change, fisheries management, and economic development.
"The purpose of convening the meetings in Washington was to broaden and deepen the the Pacific Islands Region’s engagement with the United States," the communiqué said.
United States and Pacific leaders also tackled President Remengesau’s Micronesian Challenge and the planned US military expansion in Guam.
According to the communiqué provided to the reporters , the leaders also agreed on the need to strengthen the Joint Commercial Commission (set up in 1990 at the Pacific Islands Development Program at the East-West Center) by securing additional resources to fund programs for developing trade and investment, and by revamping the agreement to improve market access for Pacific Island countries’ exports.
The Pacific leaders said the meeting was the beginning of new partnership with the U.S. and that there is a need to raise the visibility of the Pacific region in Washington D.C. and develop mechanism in the United States that will expand the new partnership through regularly scheduled summits.