The Pacific Islands Forum has endorsed a plan to boost police numbers among its members, cutting the need to rely on external forces in a crisis, with China security ally Solomon Islands supporting the Australian-funded initiative yesterday.
The bloc of 18 nations has the potential to play a strong and active role in regional security, Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown, the forum’s chairman, said on the final day of an annual meeting of leaders.
The Pacific Islands were “a region of collaboration and support and working together, rather than a region of competition and a region where other countries look to try to gain an advantage over us,” he told a news conference in Tonga.
Photo: EPA
Some analysts see the plan to set up a regional policing unit to be deployed to tackle major incidents as a move by Australia to block China’s growing police presence in the region, amid strategic rivalry between Beijing and Washington.
The Solomons, which has police ties with Australia, the forum’s largest member, as well as China, which is not a member, said it had agreed to the Pacific Policing Initiative.
“We also endorse, as part of developing this initiative, the importance of national consultation, so that it is owned and driven by countries, so we really do appreciate the initiative,” Solomon Islands Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele said.
Tongan Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni said it would reinforce the existing regional security architecture.
The leaders also agreed to the terms of a fact-finding mission to New Caledonia, riven by months of riots, for talks with relevant parties to try and resolve the crisis, he said.
In addition, the forum accepted US territories Guam and American Samoa as associate members, a final communique showed.
SHOW OF SUPPORT: As a responsible member of the international community, Taiwan might collaborate with Manila against China’s aggressive actions, MOFA said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday hinted that Taiwan might join forces with the Philippines to protect navigational freedoms, days after Beijing blocked Philippine supply ships in the South China Sea. The ministry made the comment when asked whether Taipei would be willing to join forces with the Philippines to protect the latter from increasingly aggressive activities by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy and China Coast Guard. Taiwan “is willing to cooperate with any other nation with shared values in areas of common concern, including maintaining peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacfic region,” it wrote in a statement. A Chinese
‘LIKE A BLACK HOLE’: The figure is about 7% of China’s reported military spending, although diplomats and experts say that number is often opaque or not fully inclusive China spent about US$15 billion, or 7 percent of its defense budget, on exercises in the western Pacific last year, according to a previously unpublished Taiwanese estimate, showing Beijing’s investment in military activity around Taiwan and its neighbors. The internal research by the military, reviewed by Reuters, offers a rare look into a slice of China’s defense spending as Beijing has ramped up its military presence amid rising tensions in the region. China claims Taiwan as its own and is also locked in disputes with several nations over sovereignty of large parts of the South China Sea and the East China Sea. “This
‘GLOBAL THREAT’: MOFA said that it welcomes the ‘staunch US support’ and that ‘China again made spurious claims about Taiwan that do not accord with reality’ US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan stressed the importance of stability in the Taiwan Strait, while a senior Chinese military official warned the US to stop “collusion” with Taiwan in a rare one-on-one meeting yesterday, both sides said. Sullivan arrived in Beijing on Tuesday, the first US national security adviser to visit China since 2016, for three days of talks with Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) and other high-ranking officials. Yesterday morning, Sullivan met with Zhang Youxia (張又俠), vice chairman of the Central Military Commission and China’s second-highest-ranking military official, at the Beijing headquarters of the commission.
PRESSURE: The Solomon Islands, acting under explicit instructions from Beijing, is aiming to prevent Taiwan from attending the next forum to be held in Honiara Australia has voiced support for Taiwan despite the Solomon Islands’ plan to undermine Taiwan’s status as an observer at the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF). The forum is one of the most important international organizations in the Pacific region, made up of 18 member states, including Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan’s Pacific allies, associate members and observers, along with “dialogue partners” such as the US, Japan, Canada and the EU. The 53rd edition of the forum opened in Tonga’s capital, Nuku’alofa, yesterday. Taiwan has been taking part in the forum and related events as a “developmental partner” under the name Taiwan / Republic of