Climate change and Fiji will be the topics front-and-center as leaders gather in the Pacific island nation of Marshall Islands next week for the annual Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) leaders meeting.

The Marshall Islands has highlighted climate change as a major theme for the leaders of the Forum's 16 member states to discuss at this year's meeting in the capital, Majuro.

Reflecting the urgency of the situation, the government of the Marshall Islands has chosen the theme "Marshalling the Pacific Response to the Climate Challenge" for this year's forum.

The leaders will also discuss broader issues, including cooperation and integration around the Pacific Plan, Fiji's steps towards elections, and security issues.

The PIF members will be joined by delegations from their 13 Post-Forum Dialogue Partners, including the United States, China, Japan, Canada, the Republic of Korea and India, as well as the EU and EU member states France, Italy and Britain.

The Forum meeting follows a recent spate of climate-induced disasters across the Marshall Islands, and news in May that atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide exceeded 400 parts per million for the first time, reinforcing fears that the world is on track to runaway global warming of 4 degrees centigrade or more.

Prime Minister John Key will lead the New Zealand delegation, which includes Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully, to the 44th Pacific Islands Forum in the Marshall Islands. Endi

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