The Pacific Islands Forum yesterday plunged deeper into crisis as four more nations vowed to leave because of a leadership dispute, upending diplomacy in a region where the US and China are competing for influence.
Micronesian countries — the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru and the Federated States of Micronesia — said they would follow Palau’s decision last week and pull out of the group.
They are angry that their sub-grouping’s candidate to be the forum’s next secretary-general was rejected in favor of former Cook Islands prime minister Henry Puna.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“The Micronesian presidents jointly agreed that all five nations will initiate the formal process of withdrawal from the Pacific Islands Forum,” the leaders said in a joint communique issued yesterday.
The Micronesians had said that it was their turn to fill the post under an informal arrangement that has stood for decades and claimed that the snub showed the forum was biased toward members from the South Pacific.
“The forum has lost its original intent to be a regional body,” Nauruan President Lionel Aingimea said in a statement.
The 18-member forum is mostly made up of island nations, along with Australia and New Zealand, and is a key element of the US allies’ diplomatic efforts in the region.
It has become influential on the issue of climate change, amplifying the voice of many of the region’s island nations that are threatened by rising seas and ever-more intense typhoons.
A rare split in the forum’s ranks provides a potential opening for China to boost its influence with the sparsely populated but strategically important Pacific island nations, which would alarm the US and Australia.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said that she was “saddened” by the Micronesians’ decision.
Forum protocols meant that it could take up to one year for the departures to take effect, Ardern said, adding that in the meantime, New Zealand would lobby dissenting nations to remain.
“We’re going to do what we can to encourage leaders to stay,” she told reporters. “The strength of the Pacific Islands Forum is its wide representation and of course we want to see that remain.”
There was no immediate response from the forum, although its chairman, Tuvaluan Prime Minister Kausea Natano was defiant in the wake of Palau’s departure last week, saying that he was “steadfast” in his support of Puna becoming the next forum secretary-general.
“This was a consensus decision following an agreed process... We have upheld our principles and values as characterized through the Pacific way,” he said.
Natano also said that after last week’s vote on Puna’s appointment, the Micronesian leaders had withdrawn their threat to leave the forum, and that the organization remained unified.
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