P 120316Z JUN 09
FM AMEMBASSY SUVA
TO SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1313
INFO AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 
AMEMBASSY BEIJING 
AMEMBASSY WELLINGTON 
AMEMBASSY PORT MORESBY 
AMEMBASSY MAJURO 
AMEMBASSY KOLONIA 
AMEMBASSY KOROR 
AMEMBASSY LONDON 
AMEMBASSY PARIS 
AMEMBASSY TOKYO 
AMEMBASSY APIA 
USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 
USEU BRUSSELS
AIT TAIPEI 0005
HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI
SECDEF WASHDC
CCGDFOURTEEN HONOLULU HI
SECDEF WASHDC

UNCLAS SUVA 000250 
 
 
PLEASE PASS TO EAP ACTING A/S DAVIES 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR KDEM FJ
SUBJECT: PUBLIC DIPLOMACY ACTION PLAN PROMOTES PACIFIC ISLANDS 
DEMOCRACIES AND STRENGTHENS CIVIL SOCIETY 
 
REF:  A) Suva 31 B) Suva 215 
 
¶1.   Since the election of President Obama, Pacific Island media has 
portrayed the United States in unprecedented favorable terms.  We 
plan to further promote U.S. values and objectives through a variety 
of targeted public diplomacy activities.  These initiatives will 
promote the development of democratic institutions, the rule of law, 
a free and vibrant media, and understanding of regional 
environmental issues.  Many of these activities, particularly 
PACOM's Pacific Partnership 2009 and U.S. Coast Guard maritime 
security cooperation, will demonstrate our close coordination with 
Australia and New Zealand as well as multilateral institutions such 
as the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) and the Secretariat of the 
Pacific Community (SPC). 
 
¶2.  Regarding Fiji, these activities also reflect the interim 
government's exclusion from U.S. programs.  Without specifically 
mentioning Fiji, we will be able to demonstrate the cost of lost 
opportunities resulting from the coup and the interim government's 
intransigence toward returning to democracy and a duly-elected 
civilian government.  At the same time, we will continue to identify 
programs to help strengthen an independent judiciary and rule of law 
by working with Fijian civil society (reftel Suva 31). 
 
¶3.  Following are key public diplomacy activities occurring through 
the remainder of the fiscal year: 
 
June 10: Placement on the Embassy website of the "United States' 
View on Democracy and Fiji," using the Ambassador's position and 
President Obama's key messages on democracy and human rights from 
his speech in Cairo.  Embassy foresees this statement, regularly 
updated, to remain on the website for an indeterminate period. 
 
June 10-26: The PAS will conduct interviews of Pacific islanders 
competing for Fulbright Scholarship and Humphrey Fellowship 
interviews at Embassies Suva and Port Moresby. 
 
July 4: Celebrate our Independence Day in Tonga, a constitutional 
monarchy, as an opportunity to reaffirm our bilateral relationship 
and acknowledge and encourage its progress toward democratic reform. 
 Announce the formal agreement to conduct remote non immigrant visa 
(NIV) processing through the laptop NIV program in office space 
provided by the Government of Tonga. 
 
July 13: A group discussion event, showing the Supreme Court Sonia 
Sotomayor hearings to members of the legal community in Fiji, 
including judges, to highlight the importance of a truly independent 
judiciary. 
 
July 13 - September 18:  U.S. Navy ship, the _Richard E. Byrd_, 
visits five Pacific Island countries as part of the "Pacific 
Partnership" program.  Navy personnel will deliver medical and 
constructions supplies and work with each host country on a series 
of community development projects.  Post is working with PACOM--and 
in individual cases, Australian and New Zealand representatives--to 
ensure that knowledge of the humanitarian outreach aspects of the 
program reach a broad audience.  Individual country visits are as 
follows: 
 
Samoa, Jun 30-Jul 11 (not in PAS AOR) 
Tonga, Jul 14-26 
New Caledonia, Jul 30-Aug 2 (R&R only) 
Solomon Islands, Aug 5-19 
Kiribati, Aug 23-Sep 5 
Marshall Islands, Sep 7-18 
 
July 9-16: Embassy and other USG representatives attend the 30th 
anniversary of Kiribati's independence, which will also be a 
precursor to the 30th anniversary of Kiribati's Treaty of Friendship 
with the United States. 
 
July 23: Peace Corps Fiji swearing-in provides media opportunities 
to demonstrate our commitment to the people of Fiji through our 
engagement at the grassroots level. 
 
July 27-29: PAS is collaborating with the Pacific Island News 
association to bring a speaker/trainer to the annual Pacific Media 
Summit in Vanuatu.  More than 200 journalists and media 
professionals will attend from around the Region. 
August: Secretariat for the Pacific Community (SPC) Maritime 
exercise, which will be in Cairns, Australia, was rescheduled from 
Nadi to allow for the use of United States, Australian, and New 
Zealand assets constrained by Fiji sanctions.  The U.S. Coast Guard 
recently signed an MOU with SPC to coordinate maritime security 
cooperation in the region. 
 
August 3: Tongan King George Tupou V's birthday provides a further 
opportunity to promote enhanced bilateral relations, goodwill with 
the people of Tonga, and democracy. 
 
August 4-7: The 40th Pacific Islands Forum in Cairns, Australia, 
provides rich opportunities to reengage with individual Pacific 
island nations and to reaffirm our commitment to the region. 
 
August 10-17: Strategic Speaker Morey Wolfson, of the Colorado 
Governor's Energy Office, will speak on energy use and climate 
change in Fiji and Papua New Guinea. 
 
August mid: Commencement of ongoing EAP-wide grant program managed 
by the Regional Environmental Officer to address sustainability 
issues in the live reef food-fish trade funded by OES. 
 
August 23-25: Ambassador travels to Tonga to sign the sixth 
Shiprider Agreement in the Region, which will complete the current 
phase of negotiations (reftel Suva 215).  Shiprider agreements 
enhance coordination with Australia, New Zealand, and France to 
improve maritime security throughout the Region. 
 
September 1-11: In collaboration with the Department (IIP) the PAS 
is bringing noted Nightline journalist Lea Thompson to conduct 
one-week investigative reporting workshops in Fiji and Papua New 
Guinea. 
 
September late: PAO travels to the Marshall Islands and the 
Federated States of Micronesia to train and work with newly arrived 
and newly hired staff on public diplomacy issues in the Freely 
Associated States. 
 
Summer: PAS has employed a summer-hire university student to 
establish an Embassy Facebook page or blogsite and to review the 
appropriateness of other "new media" for implementation in the 
Pacific.  During the remainder of the fiscal year we will actively 
continue to work in traditional PD areas such as educational 
advising, exchange programs, media placements and small grants.