The French team included Jean-Pierre Demeruat, Richard Ariihau Tuheiava, Robert Laufoaulu, Catherine Procaccia, Nicole Bonnefoy and Dinah Desjardins. The senators came on a mission as representatives of a Senate organization called the “Groupe D’Amitie et D’Etudes des Pays du Pacifique,” or the “Group of Friendship and Study of the Countries of the Pacific.”
This group travels to various Pacific Island Countries once a year, to observe, listen and learn from their encounters with people of the region.
They then report back to the French Senate to discuss the needs and aspirations voiced by the different spokespeople they meet on such trips.
Mori thanked the group for their interest in FSM and the Pacific region as a whole and gave prominence to the fact that the region needed France’s ongoing support toward solutions and practices addressing climate change issues.
Mori thanked the delegation for France’s commitment in this area, via European Union initiatives, including the installation of solar panels in various sites in FSM, and underlined the importance to continue to strengthen the relationship between France and FSM.
Ariihau Tuheiva, senator for French Polynesia, agreed with Mori.
He said Pacific Island Countries are located in the “tuna belt,” and as such, they need to build common strategies to protect the ocean in the Pacific region.
Mori thanked the group for their initiative and support in the creation of a cultural museum in Yap state and mentioned that FSM would be extremely interested in considering a similar concept for a national cultural museum in Pohnpei.
