Samoan Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa has suggested it was unreasonable for China to expect a Pacific trade and security deal to be rushed through this week, as she warmly welcomed the new Australian government’s climate policy.
Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong (黃英賢) announced during a joint press conference in Samoa yesterday that Canberra would provide it with a new Guardian-class patrol vessel to replace the one that was grounded last year.
Wong’s second visit to the region since being sworn in last week signals the intensifying competition with China for influence, although the former climate minister has emphasized she wants to listen to and respect Pacific priorities.
Fiame played down the bilateral cooperation agreements her country signed when Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) visited the country.
Fiame said the signing ceremony was for bilateral programs and projects, most of which “had started a number of years ago, and it was a formalizing process.”
“It just seemed a bit abnormal because the minister of foreign affairs was here and there was this particular proposal from the Chinese, that they were seeking regional agreement on,” Fiame told reporters yesterday.
“Our position was that you cannot have regional agreement when the region hasn’t met to discuss it, and to be called in to have that discussion and to have an expectation that there would be a comprehensive decision or outcome was something that we could not agree to,” she said.
In a setback for China, Pacific countries declined to sign up to a sweeping regional economic and security deal proposed by Beijing, after a crucial meeting of Pacific foreign ministers and their Chinese counterpart on Monday. Ten Pacific countries were to be part of the deal.
Samoa’s position was that regionwide agreements must first be taken to the Pacific Islands Forum.
Fiame said she believed Pacific countries had concluded that “we need to meet as a region to consider any proposal that is put to us by our development partners that requires a regional agreement.”
Wong, who joined Fiame for a media conference after talks in Apia, praised Samoa’s leader for her “very wise intervention” on the issue.
“Your prime minister has shown a lot of leadership and wisdom, not only now, but I think in many of her statements about the importance of robust regional architecture, respectful regional processes to deal with some of the external circumstances we all find ourselves in,” she said.
Wong said Australia believed regional security was “an issue for the Pacific family.”
While each nation is sovereign, it is important to have “collective consideration” of decisions that could “ultimately have the potential to affect the nature of the security arrangements of the region,” she said.
China’s proposed deal, which was leaked last week, covered everything from a free-trade area with the region to providing humanitarian and COVID-19 relief.
It also laid out China’s vision for a much closer relationship with the Pacific, especially on security matters, with China proposing to be involved in training police, cybersecurity, sensitive marine mapping and gaining greater access to natural resources.
After consideration of the deal was deferred on Monday, China released a “position paper on mutual respect and common development with Pacific island countries.”
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
‘SHORTSIGHTED’: Using aid as leverage is punitive, would not be regarded well among Pacific Island nations and would further open the door for China, an academic said New Zealand has suspended millions of dollars in budget funding to the Cook Islands, it said yesterday, as the relationship between the two constitutionally linked countries continues to deteriorate amid the island group’s deepening ties with China. A spokesperson for New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said in a statement that New Zealand early this month decided to suspend payment of NZ$18.2 million (US$11 million) in core sector support funding for this year and next year as it “relies on a high trust bilateral relationship.” New Zealand and Australia have become increasingly cautious about China’s growing presence in the Pacific
Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki yesterday erupted again with giant ash and smoke plumes after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancelations, including to and from the resort island of Bali. Several eruptions sent ash up to 5km into the sky on Tuesday evening to yesterday afternoon. An eruption on Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10km into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as much as 150km kilometers away. The eruption alert was raised on Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8km from the crater. Officers also
ESPIONAGE: The British government’s decision on the proposed embassy hinges on the security of underground data cables, a former diplomat has said A US intervention over China’s proposed new embassy in London has thrown a potential resolution “up in the air,” campaigners have said, amid concerns over the site’s proximity to a sensitive hub of critical communication cables. The furor over a new “super-embassy” on the edge of London’s financial district was reignited last week when the White House said it was “deeply concerned” over potential Chinese access to “the sensitive communications of one of our closest allies.” The Dutch parliament has also raised concerns about Beijing’s ideal location of Royal Mint Court, on the edge of the City of London, which has so
RSS