"Executive order from Trump causing ripples in the Pacific", 2 May 2025

An executive order from US president Donald Trump aimed at fast-tracking seabed mining is causing ripples in the Pacific region. Anti-deep sea mining advocates say the order likely risks Nauru's ambitions to mine in an area of the high seas known as the Clarion Clipperton Zone. Nauru alongside Tonga, Kiribati and Cook Islands, have special rights in the zone through the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and International Seabed Authority. Advocates warn Trump's order, and the behaviour of Canadian mining group The Metals Company, risk these, even though Nauru and Tonga are its partners.

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