Smaller Island States ( SIS) summit meeting was held in Port Vila, Vanuatu Tuesday morning with the focus on the issue of climate change and its adverse and destructive impact on the smaller island states.

The SIS leaders' meeting was the first of a series of Pacific Islands Forum summit meetings that will be held over the next few days. These smaller island states include Cook Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Republic of Marshall Islands and Tuvalu.

At the opening remarks, Tuiloma Neroni Slade, Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, said that transportation, labor mobility, sustainable financing options for climate change projects and strengthened regional meteorological services would be the priorities of the current SIS meeting.

"These priorities are, of course, not new. However, they would require from us all the refocusing of efforts and the mililization of limited available resources so that the response to these challenges are effective," Slade said.

Many of the seven nations that make up the SIS, such as Tuvalu, lie just a few meters above sea level and are considered at most risk to the effects of climate change.

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