From December 2017 to April 2020, he served as Vanuatu's Minister for Foreign Affairs, and sought in particular to mobilise the international community in support for the right to self-determination for the people of West Papua.

Seven days later, he was awarded the title Libehkamel Tah Tomat (Caretaker of the Sacred Nakamal (men's house)) by Chief Matthias Batick of the Nende people of South West Bay, Malakula.

[26] When he announced his intention to stand for election to Parliament, the Daily Post expressed the following opinion, which garnered favourable comments from readers' feedback: "It will not be easy but if Regenvanu can get young people behind him and voting in numbers as well as women and people who are fed up with seeing the same politicians come into power and achieving little, then he could pave the way for a new trend of highly educated Ni Vanuatu politicians to enter politics and see change that everyone wants.

[4] Caracasses is leader of the Green Confederation, and was -in the immediate aftermath of the election- whip of the parliamentary Opposition to Prime Minister Edward Natapei's government.

[36] In January 2009, he announced that he would use part of his allowance as Member of Parliament to set up and finance scholarships for students undertaking Foundation-level studies at the University of the South Pacific in Port Vila.

[43] Also in March 2009, Regenvanu began to finance a "Youth Solidarity Micro-Credit Scheme" out of his parliamentary allocation, providing loans to assist several young people in setting up "small business projects".

[48] In February 2009, he participated in a symposium entitled "Building successful partnerships: Government, the Academy, Industry and Civil Society in the Changing Pacific", at Deakin University in Australia.

"[50] On 4 May, Regenvanu relaunched a weekly radio programme, "Traem Tingting Smol", which he had initially started in early 2008, to discuss political topics affecting people's lives.

[58] At the close of 2010, the Fiji-based Islands Business praised him as "an outspoken opponent of corruption"; "in the Public Accounts Committee, he is unflinching in his attempts to wrench the facts from those on the witness stand".

[59] Alain Simeon, of the Vanuatu Broadcasting and Television Corporation, said of him in January 2012 that he was "one of the first MPs to use social media to campaign and to keep voters well informed of political developments", adding that he had "huge support in the local community".

[66] Appearing in front of the Supreme Court on that date, Regenvanu pleaded not guilty to "three counts of accessory after the fact, harboring or assisting a prisoner and obstructing police officers on duty".

They told me that they had sent a letter to the Minister of Justice Bakoa Kaltongga, complaining that they had been at 'Container City' since June in very confined areas, not allowed visitation rights and had no chance to see their chiefs for rehabilitation.

[75] In 2010, Regenvanu was instrumental in the tabling of a motion in Parliament stating that Vanuatu would request the support of the sixty fifth session of the General Assembly of the United Nations for the International Court of Justice to provide an advisory opinion on the legality of the agreement between the Republic of Indonesia and the Kingdom of the Netherlands affecting the civil rights and lives of the people of West Papua.

The motion was adopted unanimously by Parliament in June, having been moved by the Prime Minister Edward Natapei and seconded by the opposition leader Maxime Carlot Korman, along with their respective parties.

The Land and Justice Party (in Bislama, Graon mo Jastis Pati (GJP)[59]) aimed to facilitate young people's participation in politics.

[82][83][84] In early February 2011, he was described as "instrumental", along with Minister for Trade Ham Lini, in preparing a bill to introduce a Copyright Act in Vanuatu, with an aim to protect the intellectual property of artists.

He added that he had formulated a policy to restrict "the location and manner in which foreigners could establish retail and wholesale shops in Vanuatu", in order to safeguard local businesses, but that he had been reshuffled out of the ministry before it could be implemented.

Ben Bohane, of the Pacific Institute of Public Policy, remarked that Regenvanu seemed to have been "sacrificed to allow the [Republican Party] to come in as a coalition partner for the government.

Radio New Zealand International, describing Regenvanu as a reformer during his three weeks as Minister for Lands, noted: "Reliable sources from the office of the opposition say Mr Kilman had no choice but to make the reshuffle to stay in power."

[96] Less than two weeks after taking office, he issued a call, "together with a group of chiefs and fellow politicians", for the "descendants of 'blackbirding' victims living in Australia" to receive Vanuatu citizenship.

[97] Later, in October, he reiterated the call, while in Queensland to chair a meeting bringing together a Vanuatu delegation and descendants of "blackbirded" Melanesian workers in the second half of the 19th century, with an aim for the latter to form a nationally representative body for the community.

[108][109] As Justice Minister, Regenvanu also set up a commission of inquiry to determine why the recommendations of coroner Nevin Dawson regarding the death of a man in custody in 2010 -a report "scathingly critical of Vanuatu police"- had never been acted upon.

Also, in December last year, I wrote to the Prime Minister asking that Vanuatu not enter into any further relations with Indonesia given the massive human rights violations being committed by the Indonesian army in West Papua in that same month: a few days after receiving my letter the Prime Minister traveled to Indonesia to sign a Development Cooperation Agreement with that country which purports to prevent the Vanuatu Government from talking about the issue of West Papuan independence.

During a speech in Parliament criticising budget priorities, he mentioned Kilman's "directive to the Public Service not to buy any new cars, and then they went and bought 25 million vatu worth of new vehicles.

[117] A few days later, the Pacific Institute of Public Policy, describing him as a "populist", noted his "directness, which can be perceived within some quarters as pushing beyond the boundary of the Melanesian culture of respect for authority".

[118] In June 2015, he and his fellow Land and Justice Party MPs (Alfred Maoh, Gillion Williams and Daniel Nalet) published the details of their use of their parliamentary allocation funding for community purposes, most notably "to establish academic scholarships schemes in their constituencies".

On 11 February, Regenvanu was allocated the Lands and Natural resources portfolio, while fellow party member Alfred Maoh was made Minister for Internal Affairs.

[citation needed] In September, he urged member states at the Pacific Islands Forum to endorse Vanuatu's initiative to have West Papua added to the United Nations list of non-self-governing territories.

While the Forum's ensuing statement merely recognised the need to pursue "constructive engagement with Indonesia with respect to elections and human rights in West Papua", Regenvanu reached out also for support from the Non-Aligned Movement, the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (with bilateral meetings with some of those states' representatives), and the European Union, and succeeded in having the subject placed on the agenda of the Caricom Foreign Affairs Ministers meeting and the African Union Summit.

[134] Following the 2020 general election in which the Land and Justice Party obtained more seats (nine) than any other, Regenvanu was the outgoing government's candidate to succeed Charlot Salwai as prime minister.