
12 March 2025, Rarotonga, Cook Islands – The delegates representing the Pacific Small Island Developing States (PSIDS) to the upcoming Triple Conferences of the Parties (COPs) to the Basel, Rotterdam, and Stockholm Conventions, further bolstered their preparations through a negotiations training held on the second day of the Pacific Sub-Regional Preparatory Meeting for the BRS COPs.
The training was carried out by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme’s (SPREP) Legal Department in collaboration with the Africa Caribbean Pacific Multilateral Environmental Agreements Phase 3 (ACP MEA 3) Project, and Waste Management and Pollution Control (WMPC) Programme.
The participants of the training consisted of country officials who are seasoned negotiators, having attended multiple COPs and MEA negotiations, and officials who are newer to the negotiations process, with the upcoming BRS COPs to be their first time stepping into the negotiations space.
SPREP’s Director of WMPC, Mr. Anthony Talouli, at the opening of the Preparatory Meeting, acknowledged those senior colleagues who have been involved in the negotiations process for many years. He added that they will look to them for guidance and advice on how the Pacific can effectively engage in negotiations at the upcoming Triple COPs from 28 April to 9 May 2025.

During the negotiations training, the participants were divided into country and regional groups and given a mock scenario for which they had to negotiate for the best outcome for them based on the country and regional profiles provided.
The scenario gave those who are new to negotiations the chance to get an idea of what negotiations and big conferences like the Triple COPs will be, as well as how to write and make interventions on behalf of their countries and negotiating groups.
SPREP’s ACP-MEA 3 Coordinator, Ms. Anastacia Amoa-Stowers, said, “The whole purpose behind this training is to build our countries’ confidence and capacity to negotiate and for them to be familiar with what actually takes place in a real negotiation setting.”
“We want our Pacific delegates to familiarise themselves with the process, which includes putting forward their positions, whether they be national or regional, and get them used to having side huddles with other countries and groups with similar interests so it’s really just to simulate what actually happens at real multilateral negotiations,” she added.
The participants expressed their gratitude to SPREP for organising the training, with the general consensus that negotiations trainings should continue to be included in regional preparatory meetings, not just for the BRS COPs, but extend to the Convention on Biological Diversity, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and other international conventions which the Pacific are parties to and have to negotiate for.
Mr. Haden Talagi of Niue stated that the negotiations training is very useful, even for him as someone who has been working in the environment space for 20 years, there is always something new to learn.
“I encourage our younger colleagues to take up every opportunity to attend these negotiations trainings when they come up because our Pacific delegations are small in numbers, and you never know when your turn will come to sit at the negotiating table,” Mr. Talagi added.
The negotiations training was held on the last day of the Pacific Sub-Regional Preparatory Meeting for the BRS COPs at the Edgewater Resort in Rarotonga, Cook Islands.