Voting began yesterday in the tiny Pacific Island nation of Tuvalu in a national election that is being closely watched by Taiwan, China, the US and Australia, amid a tussle for influence in the region.
Tuvalu, with a population of about 11,200 spread across nine islands, has campaigned at international conferences for greater action to help low-lying nations address climate change, because science shows its capital, Funafuti, risks being inundated by tides by 2050.
Most of Tuvalu is forecast to be flooded by high tides by 2100, says the UN Development Programme, which is working with Tuvalu to bolster its coastline.
Photo: AFP
A contest for influence in the Pacific between China and the US has seen Tuvalu courted, with Washington pledging to connect its remote population by undersea cable to global telecommunications for the first time.
Tuvalu is one of three remaining Pacific allies of Taiwan, after Nauru cut ties this month and switched to Beijing, which pledged more development support.
In Taipei on Thursday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that China was trying to influence the Tuvalu election and “seize our diplomatic allies.”
In Beijing, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Contenders for Tuvalu’s leadership have all advocated for climate change action on the world stage, but differ in approaches to ties with Taiwan, a diplomatic ally since 1979.
Tuvaluan Minister of Finance Seve Paeniu, who has secured a seat in the new parliament as one of only two candidates for the Nukulaelae island electorate, said that he expects diplomatic ties with Taiwan to be reviewed after the election.
The new government should decide whether Taiwan or China can best respond to Tuvalu’s development needs, he said.
Tuvaluan Prime Minister Kausea Natano has told Taiwan he continues to support ties.
Enele Sopoaga, ousted as prime minister by Natano in a 2019 election, and former Tuvaluan minister of foreign affairs Simon Kofe have previously pledged support for Taiwan.
There are no political parties and two lawmakers are to be chosen by voters in each of eight island electorates.
After votes are counted, government boats collect the new lawmakers from islands and take them to the Funafuti, a journey that can take up to 27 hours. The prime minister is chosen by the newly elected lawmakers.
Natano and Kofe are running in the seat of Funafuti.
Kofe attracted global headlines in 2021 when he delivered a speech to the UN climate change summit standing knee deep in water to highlight the plight of the low-lying nation.
Tuvalu in November last year signed a security and migration agreement with Australia that allows Canberra to vet security ties.
Sopoaga has rejected the Australia deal, while Kofe has said some aspects should be revised.
Packed crowds in India celebrating their cricket team’s victory ended in a deadly stampede on Wednesday, with 11 mainly young fans crushed to death, the local state’s chief minister said. Joyous cricket fans had come out to celebrate and welcome home their heroes, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, after they beat Punjab Kings in a roller-coaster Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket final on Tuesday night. However, the euphoria of the vast crowds in the southern tech city of Bengaluru ended in disaster, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra calling it “absolutely heartrending.” Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said most of the deceased are young, with 11 dead
By 2027, Denmark would relocate its foreign convicts to a prison in Kosovo under a 200-million-euro (US$228.6 million) agreement that has raised concerns among non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and residents, but which could serve as a model for the rest of the EU. The agreement, reached in 2022 and ratified by Kosovar lawmakers last year, provides for the reception of up to 300 foreign prisoners sentenced in Denmark. They must not have been convicted of terrorism or war crimes, or have a mental condition or terminal disease. Once their sentence is completed in Kosovan, they would be deported to their home country. In
Brazil, the world’s largest Roman Catholic country, saw its Catholic population decline further in 2022, while evangelical Christians and those with no religion continued to rise, census data released on Friday by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) showed. The census indicated that Brazil had 100.2 million Roman Catholics in 2022, accounting for 56.7 percent of the population, down from 65.1 percent or 105.4 million recorded in the 2010 census. Meanwhile, the share of evangelical Christians rose to 26.9 percent last year, up from 21.6 percent in 2010, adding 12 million followers to reach 47.4 million — the highest figure
LOST CONTACT: The mission carried payloads from Japan, the US and Taiwan’s National Central University, including a deep space radiation probe, ispace said Japanese company ispace said its uncrewed moon lander likely crashed onto the moon’s surface during its lunar touchdown attempt yesterday, marking another failure two years after its unsuccessful inaugural mission. Tokyo-based ispace had hoped to join US firms Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace as companies that have accomplished commercial landings amid a global race for the moon, which includes state-run missions from China and India. A successful mission would have made ispace the first company outside the US to achieve a moon landing. Resilience, ispace’s second lunar lander, could not decelerate fast enough as it approached the moon, and the company has
RSS