Tuvalu

BELGRADE - Serbian FM Marko Djuric met with Tuvaluan PM Feleti Teo in Belgrade on Thursday, noting that he was pleased Teo's visit was the first bilateral visit to Serbia by a high-ranking Tuvaluan official.

Djuric said Serbia was committed to further strengthen political dialogue and overall cooperation with Tuvalu, the Serbian MFA said in a statement.

Rising waters are slowly but surely swallowing Carnie Reimers's backyard in the Marshall Islands, pushing her toward an agonizing choice: stay in the only home she's ever known or leave and face the prospect of becoming a climate refugee.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sent out a global climate "SOS" at a Pacific islands summit on Tuesday, unveiling research that shows the region's seas rising much more swiftly than global averages.

"I am in Tonga to issue a global SOS — Save Our Seas — on rising sea levels. A worldwide catastrophe is putting this Pacific paradise in peril" he said.

Emissions-belching nations were challenged to stump up for climate-related damage as a key Pacific islands summit opened on Monday, with low-lying Tuvalu declaring: "If you pollute, you should pay."

The Pacific Islands Forum got underway in Tonga's capital Nuku'alofa, with leaders hoping to draw global attention to the region's worsening climate plight.

Gulf oil states are using their vast wealth to build influence across the far-flung South Pacific, experts have told AFP, tearing a page straight out of China's Belt and Road playbook.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, two of the world's biggest crude oil producers, have been ramping up efforts to shed their reputations as global climate laggards.

The tropical cyclone Pam, which hit the South Pacific acrhipelago of Vanuatu, has claimed its first victims.

Houses in the capital Port Vila were destroyed and at least eight people have been confirmed dead, the BBC reports.

The cyclone, which has brought winds of up to 270 kilometres per hour and torrential rain, has destroyed entire villages.