Australia is to set up a defense school to train Pacific island militaries, Canberra’s new Pacific minister said yesterday, amid competition for security ties in the region and as China lays plans for a rival meeting to next month’s Pacific Islands Forum (PIF).
Australia is to double its funding for aerial surveillance of the Pacific islands’ vast fishing zone, and provide financing for Pacific islands to build more resilient infrastructure as Pacific sea level rises are forecast to be four times the global average, Australian Minister for International Development and the Pacific Pat Conroy told a Pacific conference.
“The Australian government knows that the issue of security is inseparable from the issue of climate change,” he said via video link to the conference in Fiji’s capital, Suva.
Photo: EPA-EFE
During the PIF meeting taking place in Suva next month, regional leaders are expected to discuss China’s push to strike a trade and security deal with 10 Pacific island nations that hold diplomatic ties with China.
The 18-member forum includes Australia and New Zealand — which have expressed concern at China’s security deal struck with the Solomon Islands — as well as several nations that recognize Taiwan and not China.
On July 14 — to coincide with the final day of the PIF leaders meeting — China, which is not a PIF member, is seeking to host a video meeting with the 10 nations that it wants to sign to a multilateral pact, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said.
It is unknown if the meeting with China is to go ahead, after some nations were reported to be upset by the timing.
Conroy said the Pacific Islands Forum has brought the region together for 50 years, and is the “heart of Pacific regionalism.”
Ahead of the meeting, he outlined the new Australian government’s commitments to support the region, including an Australia Pacific Defence School that would provide training for defense and security forces.
The pledge, first made during the election, to double funding for aerial surveillance of the Pacific exclusive economic zones would increase maritime security and recoup US$150 million lost each year to illegal fishing, he said.
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