John Key arriving at the Pacific Islands Forum in 2013 (Felix Marwick)

Climate, fisheries on Pacific Forum agenda

Publish Date: Tue, 6 Sept 2016, 5:18am

The usual topics will be making their annual appearance at this week's Pacific Island Forum leaders meeting, but our Prime Minister said it is expected they should be there

John Key said climate change and fisheries are expected to be major topics on the agenda - as they have been at most Forum Leader meetings in recent years.

He said that's to be expected, the reason the issues come up time and again is because the Forum's about trying to lift economic prosperity in the Pacific.

"The easiest place to create jobs is in the areas place where they have a competitive advantage so we're always trying to help them in those areas. Ultimately whether it's fisheries or tourism or some other aspects of developing their economy."

The PM isn't expecting democratic troubles and unrest in Papua New Guinea to be widely discussed.

The Peter O'Neill led government has been the subject of a no confidence vote, widespread civil unrest, riots, protests as corruption allegations have been made against it.

The violence has seen even police shoot at and wound students during a protest back in June.

Mr Key doesn't think the matter will be specifically on the agenda when the Pacific Leaders meet, however he says his Government puts a high value on democracy.

"And we can see some fragility in some of those countries and that's why we take the sort of stance that we do."

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister leaves the country today for high-stakes international wrangling at the East Asia Summit in Laos.

While there'll be handshakes and fancy dinners, the real discussions will be happening behind the scenes, including a likely chat between John Key and Barack Obama.

Mr Key has already said he'll be lobbying hard, trying to secure support for Helen Clark's bid to lead the UN.

But he'll also want to speak to Obama about the TPP, which currently risks failing if Mr Obama doesn't sign it into law before his presidency ends.