Saufatu Sopoanga
Prime Minister

(pronounced "SAW-fa-too SEW-powan-Ga")

"Economic gains through trade and globalization must not be pursued at the expense of increased poverty and environmental degradation and worsening of global warming and sea level rise."

The remote Pacific Island nation of Tuvalu consists of a chain of nine atolls situated a few degrees south of the equator and just west of the international date line. Its nearest neighbors are Kiribati (formerly the Gilbert Islands) to the north, Rotuma and Wallis Island to the south, the Solomon Islands to the west, and Tokelau to the east. The Tuvaluan islands stretch over a distance of 560 km (350 mi). From north to south, they are Nanumea, Niutau, Nanumanga, Nui, Vaitupu, Nukufetau, Funafuti, Nukulaelae, and Niutaka. The last of these has not had a permanent population, so "Tuvalu" means "group of eight." The islands rise no higher...