Australia will roll out the red carpet to the visiting Papua New Guinea prime minister, James Marape, amid efforts to stall China’s security talks with the Pacific country. Marape is due to arrive in Canberra on Wednesday before he addresses a joint sitting of the Australian parliament on Thursday – the first Pacific leader to be afforded this honour. Amid increasing competition for influence in the region, the Australian government will seek to build on the security agreement with PNG that Marape and Anthony Albanese signed just two months ago.…
Tag: Pacific islands
Papua New Guinea in talks with China on security cooperation, foreign minister says
Papua New Guinea is in early talks with China on a potential security and policing deal, the country’s foreign minister Justin Tkachenko has told the Reuters news agency, weeks after deadly riots in the country’s capital. Amid jostling between Washington and Beijing for influence in the Pacific, the biggest Pacific Islands nation, Papua New Guinea (PNG), has previously said Australia and the United States are its security partners, while China is an important economic partner. China approached PNG in September with an offer to assist its police force with training,…
Tuvalu election: what’s happening, and what could it mean for Taiwan, China and the Pacific?
On Friday, the small Pacific island nation of Tuvalu will head to the polls to elect members of its 16-seat parliament. With the country’s population sitting at just over 11,000, Tuvalu’s elections rarely spark international headlines. But, against a backdrop of intense geopolitical competition and China’s rising influence in the region, greater scrutiny surrounds this year’s vote – and its outcome may have implications far beyond Tuvalu’s shores. What is happening? Candidates in Tuvalu are battling for one of the two seats in each of Tuvalu’s eight island electorates. Many…
Nauru to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan in favour of China
Nauru has switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China less than 48 hours after Taiwan’s presidential election. In a statement, the government of the tiny island country in Micronesia, north-east of Australia, said it had decided to recognise the People’s Republic of China and was seeking the resumption of full diplomatic relations “in the best interests of the Republic and people of Nauru”. The decision leaves Taiwan with just 12 formal diplomatic allies. A spokesperson for China’s ministry of foreign affairs said it “welcomed” the decision and that it would…
Fiji may partner with China to upgrade ports and shipyards, PM Rabuka says
China may help Fiji develop its ports and shipyards, the Pacific island country’s prime minister said, raising the prospect of stronger ties with Beijing in a key area of its economy. Prime minister Sitiveni Rabuka, who has been cautious about China’s expanding security footprint in the Pacific, praised Beijing’s record of aid to Fiji in fighting Covid-19, developing agriculture and revamping infrastructure. The modernisation of Fiji’s port facilities and shipyards is a “key focus” for sustainable economic development, Rabuka told parliament on Wednesday, after meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping…
Climate crisis and China-US rivalry: five top takeaways from the Pacific’s most important summit
Leaders from Pacific island countries – together with Australia and New Zealand – have just wrapped up their most important annual political talks. They wrestled with calls to phase out fossil fuels and discussed how to navigate intense rivalry between the US and China, all while trying to keep a lid on simmering internal tensions. Here’s what we learned from the weeklong Pacific Islands Forum (Pif) summit hosted by the Cook Islands. Fossil fuel phase-out call watered down Pacific island countries are especially vulnerable to rising sea levels and extreme…
Australia news live: Optus network goes down across nation; trains grind to a halt in Melbourne
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Pacific Islands Forum: China-US rivalry takes centre stage as Solomon Islands deepens ties with Beijing
Pacific island leaders are descending on the Cook Islands for the region’s most important annual political gathering, with the talks likely to be dominated by the climate crisis and growing US-China rivalry. The Pacific Islands Forum (Pif) is an 18-member grouping of 16 Pacific nations, including Australia and New Zealand, plus two French territories. This year, Solomon Islands – which has drawn closer to China since signing a security agreement in 2022 – is reported to be sending a delegation led by the foreign minister, Jeremiah Manele, not the prime…
Australia’s support to Pacific surges as China focuses on ‘friendly’ states, aid map shows
Australia dramatically increased its overall support to the Pacific in 2021, while Beijing is targeting its development financing to “the most China-friendly Pacific island states”, the latest Lowy Institute Pacific Aid Map shows. The map, released on Tuesday, also revealed that at a time of elevated debt sustainability risks in the Pacific, Australia has become the leading source of loans and contributed to a surge in infrastructure support. “Australia looks set to become the region’s dominant infrastructure financier, having committed an additional $780m in new projects,” the Lowy Institute research…
US vows to support ‘free media’ in Pacific as concern over China influence grows
Regional media has emerged as a new front in the contest between the US and China in the Pacific, as Washington said it will support “free media” while warning of the dangers of Beijing’s efforts to manipulate information around the world. During a visit to countries in the Indo-Pacific in October, the US under secretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, Elizabeth Allen, said Washington was “prioritising the support of independent media” across the region. Speaking to the Guardian in Sydney, Allen said the support would take “different forms’’ and…