This week’s A View from Afar podcast.

Political scientist Paul Buchanan and publisher/producer Selwyn Manning are joined by Dr David Robie to discuss how Covid-19 has become a trigger of instability in the wider Pacific Region.

Dr David Robie is editor of AsiaPacificReport.nz and a renowned expert on Melanesian and Pacific affairs.

In this, the first of a two-part SPECIAL, we analyse how Covid-19 has been a trigger of instability across the Pacific region.

And specifically, for this episode, we deep dive into instability in Melanesia focusing on:

• Security issues in Papua New Guinea
• Indonesia’s interests in dividing regional groups such as the Melanesian Spearhead Group
• a security crisis that has developed in Fiji, after the recent detention of nine politicians and activists who dared to criticise former military coup leader, Frank Bainimarama’s government.

Buchanan, Manning, and Robie analyse these topics in detail and express concern for Indonesian interference in the Melanesian Spearhead Group and for democracy in the region, especially as Fiji edges toward expected elections in 2022.

• About A View from Afar:

• A View from Afar is able to be re-streamed and re-broadcast. It is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

• The podcast A View from Afar is produced by 36th Parallel assessments’ Paul G. Buchanan and Multimedia Investments Ltd’s Selwyn Manning.

• It was Nominated as a Top Defence Security Podcast by Threat.Technology – a London-based cyber security news publication.

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You can also see this podcast as video-on-demand, and earlier episodes too, by checking out EveningReport.nz or, subscribe to the Evening Report podcast here.