Australia yesterday was investigating whether Nauru breached a security treaty by inking a lucrative business deal with a Chinese company.
Nauru last week announced it had signed a US$650 million economic development agreement with China Rural Revitalization and Development Corp.
Australian Minister for Pacific Island Affairs Pat Conroy said officials were looking into whether that deal complied with a security pact between Canberra and Nauru.
Photo: AFP
Australia “is engaging with the government of Nauru about whether it activates parts of our treaty,” Conroy told reporters. “That is a really important treaty for us — that helps position us as a security partner of choice with Nauru.”
Australia and Nauru announced a landmark security treaty in December last year, advancing Canberra’s aim of blunting China’s growing regional influence.
Under the deal, Nauru must seek Australia’s agreement before it signs any bilateral accords on maritime security, defense and policing.
Nauru also agreed to consult Australia if other parties look to strike agreements granting them access to critical infrastructure, such as ports and airfields or its banking sector. In return, Nauru receives tens of millions of dollars to prop up its government budget and bolster its stretched police force.
Nauru last year surprised many when it abruptly severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan in favor of Beijing.
Nauruan Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Lionel Aingimea traveled to Beijing to sign the business deal last week.
China Rural Revitalization and Development Corp agreed to invest in key sectors such as agriculture and fisheries, a Nauruan government statement said.
Nauru, population 12,500, is one of the world’s smallest nations with a mainland measuring just 20km2. It is considered especially vulnerable to climate change.
HISTORIC: After the arrest of Kim Keon-hee on financial and political funding charges, the country has for the first time a former president and former first lady behind bars South Korean prosecutors yesterday raided the headquarters of the former party of jailed former South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol to gather evidence in an election meddling case against his wife, a day after she was arrested on corruption and other charges. Former first lady Kim Keon-hee was arrested late on Tuesday on a range of charges including stock manipulation and corruption, prosecutors said. Her arrest came hours after the Seoul Central District Court reviewed prosecutors’ request for an arrest warrant against the 52-year-old. The court granted the warrant, citing the risk of tampering with evidence, after prosecutors submitted an 848-page opinion laying out
STAGNATION: Once a bastion of leftist politics, the Aymara stronghold of El Alto is showing signs of shifting right ahead of the presidential election A giant cruise ship dominates the skyline in the city of El Alto in landlocked Bolivia, a symbol of the transformation of an indigenous bastion keenly fought over in tomorrow’s presidential election. The “Titanic,” as the tallest building in the city is known, serves as the latest in a collection of uber-flamboyant neo-Andean “cholets” — a mix of chalet and “chola” or Indigenous woman — built by Bolivia’s Aymara bourgeoisie over the past two decades. Victor Choque Flores, a self-made 46-year-old businessman, forked out millions of US dollars for his “ship in a sea of bricks,” as he calls his futuristic 12-story
FORUM: The Solomon Islands’ move to bar Taiwan, the US and others from the Pacific Islands Forum has sparked criticism that Beijing’s influence was behind the decision 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
END OF AN ERA: The vote brings the curtain down on 20 years of socialist rule, which began in 2005 when Evo Morales, an indigenous coca farmer, was elected president A center-right senator and a right-wing former president are to advance to a run-off for Bolivia’s presidency after the first round of elections on Sunday, marking the end of two decades of leftist rule, preliminary official results showed. Bolivian Senator Rodrigo Paz was the surprise front-runner, with 32.15 percent of the vote cast in an election dominated by a deep economic crisis, results published by the electoral commission showed. He was followed by former Bolivian president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga in second with 26.87 percent, according to results based on 92 percent of votes cast. Millionaire businessman Samuel Doria Medina, who had been tipped
RSS