Terms Vanuatu News Today

Appeasing the gods and showing thanks for the years yam harvest. vanuatu is one of the smallest nations on earth. for all it has to offer in terms of culture and fishing and non-bungee cord bungee jumping and a very lush coconut crop, in political terms vanuatu is remarkably unstable. the country went through, for example, four prime ministers just in the first six months of 2011. but one of the ways that tiny fascinating vanuatu came up to punch above their weight on the world stage, make the m...

Theyre open to almost anything for a price. for example, the ongoing and very tense standoff between china and taiwan. taiwan in some ways wanting to be an independent nation. china insisting taiwan will never be independent, it will always be part of china. in 2004, vanuatu decided they were going to recognize the independent nation of taiwan. opened up diplomatic relations with the capital, it taipei. china, of course, was furious. taiwan reportedly paid vanuatu $30 million for that recognitio...

Government in kiev. and how is this going to go? >> when they become part of russia and theyve thought they are ukrainians. >> what i worry about is provocations. you could have some muslim tatars do some kind of attack or have an attack thats blamed on this community then you have a pretext for russia to advance further to take further steps. you could see russian orthodox churches, for example, being attacked in the east because theyre so split in that same blue/green map, there is the ukraini...

Even more inflammatory to the international community. just unilaterally annexing new territory. but its an action that saves them from the vanuatu-style international humiliation they just went through a few years ago. i wonder if that means theyre learning. joining us now, nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel who has been reporting from ukraine recently. richard, great to see you. >> i love that you blurred the videos. they dive off the towers naked except for wearing gourds. >> ...

Russia wanted to create these two countries so russia recognized them. then they said, okay, south ossetia, you recognize abkhazia. abkhazia, you recognize ossetia. somebody call vanuatu. it was 2011 by the time russia was shopping around the world for micro countries it might be able to persuade to recognize the two fake new countries it had invented inside georgia. vanuatu for a while was happy to go along with the russians plan. we dont know what russia offered to pay to them, but in may 2011...

Offered to pay to them, but in may 2011, vanuatus foreign minister announced his nation was prepared to recognize the independent nation of abkhazia. a few days later, vanuatus ambassador to the united nations said, no, thats not true, we dont recognize this abkhazia thing as an independent nation. no, that was a misunderstanding. a few days after that vanuatus foreign minister insisted in this youtube video, yeah, there had been a misunderstanding but are totally going to recognize abkhazia. ar...

Thing as an independent nation. no, that was a misunderstanding. a few days after that vanuatus foreign minister insisted in this youtube video, yeah, there had been a misunderstanding but are totally going to recognize abkhazia. are we going to do that? >> im sorry. i was away. we got our wires crossed. so the foreign minister said, yes, you know, we do recognize

That country. then the u.n. ambassador said, no, we dont recognize the country. the foreign minister came back with the youtube clip and said we recognize the country. a few months after that was posted on youtube, the vanuatu government came out and said, no, no, we dont recognize abkhazia. this thing was an absolute mess. after the vanuatu government came out a few months later and said, on second thought, we do recognize abkhazia, an interview was given and said, you know what, i have no idea...

Theres been any broadcast on any television network where youre talking about vanuatu and abkhazia in the same sentence. >> but it ends up being, i think, part of the calculation that russia must be making here. this referendum, everybody knew there was going to be some sort of referendum staged in crimea in terms of how to try to normalize the russian invasion. did you know or should we have expected it would be to annex them into the russian federation? >> i think youre on to something here. c...

Independent nation, whether or not they send an ambassador. whether they set up embassies, whether they open up trade relations. all of these other things you have to do if another country come into an existence and would be just like what happened in georgia. instead, if russia just takes crimea into its own territory, takes crimea into the existing nation of russia, then russia does something that is arguably even more inflammatory to the international community. just unilaterally annexing new...