Fiji’s prime minister yesterday said that China should not be allowed to gain a permanent military foothold in the strategically contested South Pacific region, adding that a potential conflict in the Taiwan Strait would impact Pacific islands.
Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka said China does not need a military base in the region to project power, as shown by an intercontinental ballistic missile test.
China has spent years cementing its influence in a string of Pacific island nations, challenging traditional security partners such as the US and its ally Australia.
Photo: Bloomberg
The islands are trying to cope with a big, powerful China seeking to spread its influence, Rabuka told the National Press Club in the Australian capital, adding that Beijing understood he would lobby other Pacific leaders against such a base.
“Pacific leaders in all their recent discussions have tried to go for policies that are friendly to all and enemies to none — and it is a fairly tough course to steer, but it is possible,” he said.
The Pacific would feel the impact of any conflict over the Taiwan Strait between major powers, a possibility already being planned for by China and other nations, he said.
Fiji opposes the establishment of a military base by China, he said, in response to queries on Beijing’s security ambitions in a region where it already has a security pact with the Solomon Islands and a police presence in several nations.
“If they want to come, who would welcome them?” he said. “Not Fiji. And I think that China understands that well.”
China’s embassy in Fiji did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and Beijing has previously ruled out establishing a military base in the Solomon Islands.
China did not need a base to project power, as Beijing tested an intercontinental ballistic missile in September last year that flew over Fiji to land in international waters, Rabuka said.
China showed off its coast guard to 10 visiting leaders of Pacific islands last month, after registering two dozen of its vessels with a regional fisheries commission last year, although it has yet to start South Pacific patrols.
The China Coast Guard would need to “observe our sovereignty, our sovereign waters,” Rabuka said.
Fiji’s cooperation with China to develop infrastructure should not affect how it interacts with Australia, New Zealand and the US, he added.
To manage strategic competition in the region, Rabuka is trying to build support for an Ocean of Peace treaty to ensure outsiders respect its unity and the “rejection of coercion as a means to achieve security, economic or political advantage.”
Leaders of the 18 members of the Pacific Islands Forum are to consider the pact at a meeting in September.
Beijing has spent hundreds of millions of dollars building sports stadiums, government offices, hospitals and roads in Pacific nations such as the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.
The diplomatic charm offensive has already borne fruit. Kiribati, the Solomon Islands and Nauru have in the past few years severed longstanding diplomatic links with Taiwan in favor of China.
The Solomon Islands is seen as a particularly close friend of China in the region, after it in 2022 signed a secretive security pact with Beijing, fueling fears China might seek to use the archipelago as a military base.
MAKING WAVES: China’s maritime militia could become a nontraditional threat in war, clogging up shipping lanes to prevent US or Japanese intervention, a report said About 1,900 Chinese ships flying flags of convenience and fishing vessels that participated in China’s military exercises around Taiwan last month and in January have been listed for monitoring, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) Deputy Director-General Hsieh Ching-chin (謝慶欽) said yesterday. Following amendments to the Commercial Port Act (商港法) and the Law of Ships (船舶法) last month, the CGA can designate possible berthing areas or deny ports of call for vessels suspected of loitering around areas where undersea cables can be accessed, Oceans Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. The list of suspected ships, originally 300, had risen to about 1,900 as
Japan’s strategic alliance with the US would collapse if Tokyo were to turn away from a conflict in Taiwan, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said yesterday, but distanced herself from previous comments that suggested a possible military response in such an event. Takaichi expressed her latest views on a nationally broadcast TV program late on Monday, where an opposition party leader criticized her for igniting tensions with China with the earlier remarks. Ties between Japan and China have sunk to the worst level in years after Takaichi said in November that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could bring about a Japanese
Right-wing political scientist Laura Fernandez on Sunday won Costa Rica’s presidential election by a landslide, after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade. Fernandez’s nearest rival, economist Alvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff. With 94 percent of polling stations counted, the political heir of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves had captured 48.3 percent of the vote compared with Ramos’ 33.4 percent, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. As soon as the first results were announced, members of Fernandez’s Sovereign People’s Party
MORE RESPONSIBILITY: Draftees would be expected to fight alongside professional soldiers, likely requiring the transformation of some training brigades into combat units The armed forces are to start incorporating new conscripts into combined arms brigades this year to enhance combat readiness, the Executive Yuan’s latest policy report said. The new policy would affect Taiwanese men entering the military for their compulsory service, which was extended to one year under reforms by then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in 2022. The conscripts would be trained to operate machine guns, uncrewed aerial vehicles, anti-tank guided missile launchers and Stinger air defense systems, the report said, adding that the basic training would be lengthened to eight weeks. After basic training, conscripts would be sorted into infantry battalions that would take
RSS