Tuvaluan Prime Minister Feletei Teo said his country might pull out of the region’s top political meeting next month, after host nation Solomon Islands moved to block all external partners — including China, the US and Taiwan — from attending.
The Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) leaders’ meeting is to be held in Honiara in September. On Thursday last week, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele told parliament that no dialogue partners would be invited to the annual gathering.
Countries outside the Pacific, known as “dialogue partners,” have attended the forum since 1989, to work with Pacific leaders and contribute to discussions around development and regional security.
Photo: Reuters
While not an official partner, Taiwan has attended the meetings as a “development partner” for more than three decades.
BEIJING’S HAND?
The decision by Honiara, a close ally of Beijing, has fueled speculation the move was aimed at keeping Taiwan out of the meeting. It has raised questions over China’s growing sway in Pacific diplomacy and whether regional unity can hold.
Tuvalu, along with the Marshall Islands and Palau, are the only Pacific countries that maintain diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
Teo said he would wait to see how other Pacific leaders respond before deciding whether to attend the forum next month, expressing “disappointment” at the last-minute exclusion of external countries.
“The region does not need these kinds of distractions,” Teo said. “We have far more important issues to focus on, rather than letting ourselves be pressured from outside.”
Teo said he had written to Manele outlining concerns around the inconvenient timing of the decision, and his “difficulties supporting the justification” behind the move.
“We’ll ... see what the rest of the leaders’ response is to the proposal by the Solomons, and then we’ll make our decision,” he said.
“I’ll wait for the final decision on this arrangement, and then reconsider my participation,” he said.
The annual forum is the main mechanism through which leaders define region-wide policy agendas.
Teo said that he “won’t be surprised” if China was behind the decision to block partners from the forum, saying the unusual move broke with decades of precedent in the region.
“There is no denying that China is trying to extend its footprint in the Pacific, and so is the US,” Teo said.
“My own personal view is that we do need their development assistance, but we do not need the competition and conflict overshadowing our development agenda in the Pacific,” he added.
China’s embassy in Honiara did not reply to a request for comment.
A US Department of State spokesperson said Washington was “disappointed” by the move to exclude partners, and reaffirmed support for the attendance of all partners, including Taiwan, at the forum.
“All [forum] partners, and that includes Taiwan, should be invited to participate ... regardless of where it is hosted — just as countries that maintain diplomatic ties with Taiwan invite all dialogue partners, including China,” the spokesperson said.
Taiwan said it “urges that existing arrangements be maintained,” adding that its participation at the Pacific meetings would “further strengthen cooperation.”
PALAU’S VIEW
Not all of Taiwan’s Pacific allies have opposed the decision to exclude foreign attenders to the forum.
Palau, which is to host the forum next year, said it “respects and acknowledges” the Solomon Islands’ decision to block all foreign attendees, with the office of the president saying it allows members “to focus on the critical intra-regional issues at this year’s forum.”
The Solomon Islands switched diplomatic allegiances from Taiwan to China in 2019 and three years later, the countries signed a controversial security pact.
Honiara has also received significant Chinese funding, including a recent US$1 million donation to buy 27 cars to transport delegates during the forum.
HONIARA’S DECISION
Sarina Theys, senior lecturer in diplomacy and international affairs at the University of the South Pacific, said the Solomon Islands’ decision might be an attempt to avoid openly choosing between China and Taiwan.
“The only way to do that is then to just not invite anyone,” Theys said.
Niuone Eliuta, first secretary at the Tuvalu High Commission in New Zealand, said he had “no doubt China is behind this decision” to block external partners from the upcoming forum.
“This day and age China is very much influencing what’s going on in the Pacific,” Eliuta said, adding that excluding donor partners could mean countries miss out on vital support such as climate funding.
“This is a temporary fix, moving development dialogue partners out of the Solomon Islands,” Eliuta said. “I just hope no countries break away from PIF.”
BEIJING’S INFLUENCE
Concerns over Beijing’s influence on the forum are not new. At last year’s meeting in Tonga, segments of the Pacific leader’s communique that referenced Taiwan were altered and only later reinstated after objections from Taiwan and other nations.
Analysts said the initial alteration was an outcome of China’s influence.
In 2022, two Chinese defense attaches were ejected from the forum’s meeting in Suva, Fiji, while caught listening to a visual address given by then-US vice president Kamala Harris.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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