Category Archives: Pacific islands

Police remove two Chinese defence attaches from Pacific Islands Forum meeting

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Fijian police escort the men from media space where US vice-president Kamala Harris was making virtual address

Two Chinese defence attaches have been kicked out by Fijian police from a Pacific Islands Forum meeting at which the US vice-president, Kamala Harris, was giving a virtual address.

The men were sitting in on a session of the forum’s fisheries agency at which Harris announced the step-up of US engagement in the region, believed to be in response to China’s growing influence.

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Power struggle with China and regional rift in focus as Anthony Albanese heads to Pacific Islands forum

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Absence of Kiribati from the meeting is ‘really devastating’ to the body’s long-term strategy, security expert says

When Anthony Albanese touches down in Suva on Wednesday to attend his first Pacific Islands Forum, he will be walking in to a regional meeting that is putting on a brave face.

While it had been thought that the forum would be focused on the growing influence of China and as an opportunity for Australia to showcase its new climate credentials, Albanese will arrive to a group wrestling with other problems.

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US announces new embassies in major Pacific push as it jostles with China for influence in region

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Vice-president Kamala Harris has announced postings in Kiribati and Tonga as leaders gather in Fiji for the Pacific Islands Forum

The US has announced a major step-up in its engagement with the Pacific region, including the establishment of new embassies in Kiribati and Tonga, in moves that will be seen as attempts to counter China’s growing influence in the region.

The US vice-president, Kamala Harris, made the announcement on Tuesday, as Pacific leaders gathered in Suva, Fiji for the Pacific Islands Forum, the most significant regional meeting.

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End of rapid Covid test and telehealth subsidies criticised – as it happened

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Payments extended to eight more local government areas and sped up to prioritise victims over auditing; free Covid rapid tests for concession card holders to end this month. This blog is now closed

A new campaign has launched today to tackle racism by the Australian Human Rights Commission.

Chin Tan, the race discrimination commissioner, was on ABC Radio this morning discussing the campaign he says calls on all Australians to reflect on the causes and impacts of racism, not only on its victims but Australia’s collective wellbeing as a society.

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China influenced Kiribati exit from Pacific Islands Forum, MP claims

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Opposition leader calls withdrawal from PIF an ‘extreme move’ and claims the reasons offered by Kiribati’s president were just excuses

Kiribati’s decision to withdraw from the Pacific Islands Forum on the eve of the event was an extreme move driven by pressure from China, the Micronesian nation’s opposition leader says.

Tessie Lambourne, a former top diplomat who was elected to Kiribati’s parliament in 2020, said she was “shocked and extremely disappointed” by the government’s move to withdraw from the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF).

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Australia a ‘trusted global partner’ on climate again, Albanese to tell energy forum

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Prime minister will open international forum in Sydney, saying the Indo-Pacific faces ‘enormous’ challenges but also opportunities

Anthony Albanese will declare Australia has now rejoined the ranks of “trusted global partner” on climate action while committing his government to finding common ground across the Indo-Pacific to address both the climate crisis and the emerging economic opportunity of the clean energy revolution.

The prime minister will open the Sydney Energy Forum on Tuesday before travelling to the Pacific Islands Forum in Fiji, where he hopes to progress Australia’s proposal to co-host a United Nations climate summit with Pacific neighbours.

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Kiribati withdraws from Pacific Islands Forum in blow to regional body

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President says it will not be attending forum because of failure to address concerns of Micronesian countries

The key diplomatic body in the Pacific has been dealt a devastating blow on the eve of its first in-person meeting since the pandemic, as Kiribati announced it would be withdrawing from the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF).

The Pacific has become a site of intense geostrategic competition, as a result of increased interest from China, and Kiribati’s withdrawal will weaken the forum at a time when Pacific regionalism in the face of fierce geopolitical attention has never been more important.

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China’s foreign minister says Coalition government was ‘root cause’ of hostility to Australia

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In meeting with Penny Wong after G20 summit, Wang Yi urged Australia to treat China as a partner, not a threat

The Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, has urged his Australian counterpart, Penny Wong, to treat China as a partner, accusing previous governments of treating it as an opponent or threat.

On the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers meeting in Bali on Friday, Wang expressed hope that Australia could “seize the opportunity, take concrete actions and come to a correct understanding of China” and accumulate “positive energy” towards it, according to a summary published late on Saturday by China’s foreign ministry.

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‘Far from adequate’: former Pacific leaders group urges Australia to increase 43% emissions cut

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Pacific Elders Voice also called for Australia to end gas and coal developments ahead of Pacific Islands Forum

Former Pacific leaders have called for “urgent actions” to reduce global carbon emissions, including a commitment to no new coal or gas projects as Anthony Albanese prepares to travel to Fiji for the most important diplomatic regional meeting in the Pacific.

A group of former leaders of Pacific island nations, called Pacific Elders Voice, have called for accelerated efforts to move beyond coal and gas, and for new finance to be made available for loss and damage caused by the climate crisis, in the foreword to a new report released today by the Australia-based Climate Council.

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PNG prime minister denies connection to suitcase full of cash found as voting starts

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The prime minister’s son was arrested by police but released without charge, after police allegedly found a suitcase with AU$650,000 on another traveller

Papua New Guinea’s prime minister James Marape has denied any connection to a suitcase containing PGK1.56m (AU$650,000) in cash that police found in Hela province, just as voting in the country’s election was about to start.

Mospal Marape, the son of the prime minister, James Marape, was arrested after being found allegedly travelling with a man carrying a suitcase full of cash totalling PGK1.56m (AU$650,000) to Hela province, where voting in the country’s election kicked off this week.

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Papua New Guinea to head to polls amid election violence fears

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Election-related deaths plague lead-up to voting day in election closely watched by China and Australia

Papua New Guinea is heading to the polls on Monday and there are fears the vote could be more violent than the 2017 elections, in which more than 200 people died.

Violence has plagued the lead-up to the vote. Local media reports that through May and the campaign period, there have been 28 election-related deaths, several injuries, an assassination attempt on a possible candidate, the shooting of an election official and burning of five vehicles.

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Earliest Pacific seafarers were matrilocal society, study suggests

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DNA analysis of 164 individuals from 2,800 to 300 years ago shows men would move to be with their wives

The world’s earliest seafarers who set out to colonise remote Pacific islands nearly 3,000 years ago were a matrilocal society with communities organised around the female lineage, analysis of ancient DNA suggests.

The research, based on genetic sequencing of 164 ancient individuals from 2,800 to 300 years ago, suggested that some of the earliest inhabitants of islands in Oceania had population structures in which women almost always remained in their communities after marriage, while men left their mother’s community to live with that of their wife. This pattern is strikingly different from that of patrilocal societies, which appeared to be the norm in ancient populations in Europe and Africa.

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Serious defects discovered in patrol boats Australia supplied to Pacific Islands

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Potentially serious faults in Guardian-class patrol boats may force some countries to pause use of vessels

Pacific island countries may halt the use of Australian-provided patrol boats after potentially serious defects were discovered, in a blow to a $2.1bn maritime security program.

The Australian government is now considering how to work with Pacific nations to close any gap in their maritime surveillance activities while the issues – including carbon monoxide entering part of the boat – are resolved.

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China insists Tonga loans come with ‘no political strings attached’

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Ambassador rejects ‘debt trap’ concerns, saying heavily indebted Pacific nation will not be forced to pay back loans

China’s ambassador to Tonga has denied engaging in “debt trap” diplomacy in the Pacific, saying in his first press conference in two years that if the heavily indebted country cannot repay its loans, “we can talk and negotiate in a friendly, diplomatic manner”.

Cao Xiaolin told Tuesday’s gathering in Nuku’alofa – a rare opportunity for journalists to question Chinese officials – that preferential loans from China came with “no political strings attached” and that Beijing would never force countries to repay the loans.

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‘Things aren’t going back’: Australia braces for step-up in China’s Pacific push

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Despite initial relief over island nations’ rejection of security and economic pact, senior government figure says reprieve could be only temporary

The Australian government is bracing for China to step up its push to expand influence in the Pacific, with a senior figure privately conceding Canberra has a lot of work to do to regain lost trust and strengthen regional unity.

Despite initial relief at a decision by Pacific island countries to defer a sweeping 10-country security and economic pact proposed by China, the Australian government now believes this may be only a temporary reprieve.

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Australia should rejoin UN climate fund to prove commitment to Pacific neighbours, thinktank argues

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Report finds Australia’s ‘Pacific step-up’ could lack credibility if perceived to be only in response to China’s presence

Australia must move on from a “crisis mentality” as it seeks to reset its relationship with Pacific island countries, including by rejoining a key UN climate fund, a thinktank says.

Australia must do more than simply position itself as a first responder to natural disasters if it is to become “an effective climate ally with the Pacific”, according to a series of policy papers to be published on Tuesday.

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Vanuatu calls on Australia to back its UN bid to recognise climate change harm

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Pacific islands urge new Labor government to support push for international court of justice to issue climate advisory opinion

Australia’s new Labor government has been called on to prove its commitment to climate action and support for Pacific countries by backing a campaign led by Vanuatu to see international law changed to recognise climate change harm.

In a letter to the prime minister sent by leading Pacific and Australian NGOs, shared exclusively with Guardian Australia, the groups urged Anthony Albanese to support Vanuatu’s campaign for the international court of justice to issue an advisory opinion on the question of climate change.

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Australia news live updates: Albanese extends Covid funding as nation records 51 deaths from virus; energy supply will meet weekend demand, Aemo says

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NSW premier says health funding ‘a great start’ after national cabinet meeting; electricity reserves improve across National Energy Market; ASX plunges to lowest level since November 2020; nation records 51 Covid deaths. Follow live

The PM is making the rounds this morning, appearing on Sunrise and repeating his line that almost a decade of “delay and denial” under the former Coalition government led to the current energy crisis (I feel like this will be a recurring theme today.)

People want an end to the nonsense that’s gone on for the last decade.

You can’t fix 10 years of inaction in just 10 days but we are taking immediate action through Aemo to make sure that the lights stay on. At the same time, we’re making sure that we create the investment environment to make sure we get it right.

The gas is actually the property of the people of the state, whichever state that is, and there should have always been enough for the state and the country in question. It just seems to me to be very strange that there’s no gas for local people yet.

Coal-fired power generation is very old technology and very difficult for coal plants to cope with renewables coming onto the grid, basically, new renewables every minute

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New Zealand to boost maritime security with Solomon Islands amid China focus on Pacific

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‘Small work plan’ is another signal of intensifying security interests in the region, in the wake of Beijing’s security deal with Honiara

New Zealand is developing its own maritime security “work plans” with Solomon Islands, its defence minister has said, months after news of China’s defence pact with the Pacific nation emerged.

New Zealand minister Peeni Henare said in an interview with Newsroom published on Tuesday that the two countries had begun discussions of a work plan, focused on maritime security, after his meeting with Solomon Islands’ national security minister, Anthony Veke, over the weekend.

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Vanuatu, one of the last Covid hermit nations, to open to tourists after two years

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The tourism-dependent Pacific country will reopen with almost no restrictions in July, though there are concerns about lack of airline deals

Vanuatu, one of the last Covid hermit nations, is set to open up to international travel, but there are concerns the country is not ready to restart tourism, with a lack of deals with foreign airlines posing a significant problem.

From 1 July, international tourists will be able to return to Vanuatu, a country of 300,000 people three hours from Australia, which has had some of the toughest border restrictions in the world through the pandemic.

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