A Chinese corporation has pledged A$1 billion (US$648.85 million) to Nauru, the Pacific Islands nation with a population of 12,000 said yesterday, as major powers including the US push for influence in the region.
The announcement comes ahead of tomorrow’s meeting of foreign ministers of the Pacific Islands Forum regional bloc and the region’s top political meeting next month.
The Solomon Islands, which hosts the annual leaders meeting and is China’s biggest ally in the region, made the surprise decision to block 21 donor countries, including China and the US, from attending after pressure from Beijing to exclude Taiwan.
Photo: AFP
The US expressed disappointment with the move, but yesterday made its own US$60 million pledge to the region under a 2022 treaty, as news of the Chinese agreement with Nauru was made public.
US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau on Monday told Pacific Islands officials in Washington that the long-promised funds would be released, the US Department of State said.
Meanwhile, Australia, the largest forum member, has sent high-level delegations to Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu for security talks.
Nauruan Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Lionel Aingimea signed the A$1 billion economic development proposal in Beijing with the China Rural Revitalization and Development Corp (國家鄉村振興發展總), a statement posted on the Nauruan government’s Web site said.
The deal, signed last week, would develop Nauru’s renewable energy, phosphate industry, fisheries, water, agriculture, transportation and health sectors, it said.
Next month’s Pacific leaders meeting would consider regional security, with Australia seeking to block China from forging further security ties in its Pacific neighborhood.
Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong (黃英賢) and Minister for Defence Richard Marles and Minister for Pacific Island Affairs Pat Conroy are today to hold security talks in Vanuatu, with Australian Broadcasting Corp reporting a deal worth A$500 million over a decade under consideration.
Marles yesterday opened the Lombrum Naval Base in Papua New Guinea, which he said was the largest security infrastructure project delivered by Australia in the Pacific.
The upgrade to the base was funded by the US and Australia.
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
Taiwan is still in the process of assessing the possibility of recruiting workers from Eswatini, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, adding that its goal is to help Eswatini upgrade its vocational training centers. If there are plans to recruit workers from Eswatini, safeguarding national security, protecting public health and ensuring the employment rights of Taiwanese would be prerequisites, Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General Yen Chia-liang (顏嘉良) told a news conference. Key considerations would also include filling labor shortages in specific industries, and fostering bilateral professional and technical exchanges, he said. Yen was asked about the progress of labor
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
A US uncrewed surface vessel (USV) encountered multiple Chinese warships during an autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait, US defense company Seasats said in a statement on Wednesday. Seasats announced that a Lightfish USV had completed the first autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait. Over five days, the USV traversed the entire length of the Strait while constantly monitoring surface vessel traffic, the company said. The Lightfish encountered multiple Chinese warships, one of which was a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 056 corvette, it said. The Chinese vessels were operating “well within Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone without transmitting their identity via the
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