Australian foreign minister looks to Asia Pacific, Filipino fishermen stranded in PNG

Highlights from the region’s media:

• New Australian foreign minister looks to Asia Pacific (Radio Australia)

• Opinion: Aid challenges for the new Australian Foreign Minister  (Stephen Howes at the Development Policy Blog)

• “Illegal” Filipino fishermen stranded in Manus (PNG Post Courier)

• Malaysia’s CIMB-Royal Bank of Scotland in exclusive talks for some Asian units

A significant chunk of RBS’ operations are located in Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and India and it    has offices in 11 countries across the region, including China. (Reuters)

• Australia to spend A$600 million developing climate change “leaders” in the Pacific , but opposition calls program ‘outrageous’(Daily Telegraph)

• Three new entrants in Malaysia’s wealthiest list: highest debutante has interests stretching from Malaysia to Fiji, PNG and Australia (The Star)

• Vanuatu MP Ralph Regenvanu attends summit to support West Papua (Vanuatu Daily Post)

• Green MP calls on NZ to ‘engage’ with Indonesia over Papua (Radio New Zealand International)

• Freeport says 32 shootings eroding Grasberg output (Bloomberg)

• Ni-Vanuatu wary of Chinese business activities (Vanuatu Daily Post)

• Australian asylum seeker numbers soar (The Diplomat)

• Palau President urges passage of overdue budget (Island Times/Pacnews)

• Indonesia to modify GDP forecast down slightly, inflation target up (The Star)