Australia, China continue Pacific rivalry with island visits
Australia and China are continuing their tit-for-tat diplomatic rivalry in the Pacific as the foreign ministers from each country pay separate visits to island nations
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Australia and China continued their tit-for-tat diplomatic rivalry in the Pacific on Thursday as the foreign ministers from each country paid separate visits to island nations.
In Samoa, Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong announced that her country would donate a patrol boat to replace a similar one that was wrecked after it ran aground last year.
Meanwhile, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Papua New Guinea to meet with leaders there on the penultimate stop of an eight-nation regional tour.
Wang had hoped to ink an ambitious multilateral deal with 10 South Pacific nations this week covering everything from security to fisheries. He couldn't find consensus on that deal but has been notching up smaller wins by signing bilateral agreements with many of the countries he’s been visiting.
The diplomatic push by China, especially around Pacific security, has caused deep concern among some of the island nations as well as farther afield in Canberra and Washington. Since news of the proposed deal emerged, Wong has made two trips to the Pacific to shore up support for Australia.
In Samoa, Wong met with Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa.
Wong told reporters that Australia respected the right of sovereign nations to make their own security decisions, but said those decisions "have the potential to affect the nature of the security arrangements of the region. So having a collective consideration of those matters is important."
Fiame said she wanted to make clear that while Samoa had signed some bilateral agreements with China, it hadn't favored inking the big multilateral deal — at least not right away. She said Samoa and the other nations needed to talk through the issues first.
“Our position was that you cannot have regional agreement when the region hasn't met to discuss it,” she said.
Fiji's Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama has been even more blunt, tweeting: “The Pacific needs genuine partners, not superpowers that are super-focused on power.”
Wang's visit to Papua New Guinea comes ahead of a national election there next month.
Wong will next visit Tonga while Wang plans to end his tour with a stop in East Timor.