Australia will double its funding for aerial surveillance of the vast fishing zone of the Pacific islands, and provide funding to Pacific islands to build more resilient infrastructure as sea level rise in the Pacific is expected to increase by four times the global average, Secretary of International Development and the Pacific, Pat Conroy, told a conference Tuesday.
“The Australian government knows that the issue of security is inextricably linked to the issue of climate change,” he said in a video address at the conference in Fiji’s capital Suva.
At the Pacific Islands Forum to be held in Suva next month, regional leaders are expected to discuss pressure from China to sign a trade and security deal with 10 Pacific island nations that have diplomatic ties with China.
A leaked draft of the deal showed it covered fisheries and maritime security, as well as police training.
The forum includes Australia and New Zealand, which have expressed concerns about China’s recent security deal with the Solomon Islands, as well as several countries that recognize Taiwan and not Beijing.
China, which is not a PIF member, wants to host a video meeting with the 10 countries it wants to sign a multilateral pact on July 14 to coincide with the last day of the PIF leaders’ meeting, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
The political leadership dialogue planned by the International Branch of the Communist Party also coincides with the day forum leaders are expected to issue a communiqué. It is not known whether the meeting with China will go ahead, after some countries were reportedly upset by the timing.
China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request from Reuters for comment, but denied Monday that the foreign minister would hold a meeting.
A similar event last year was organized by the Minister of the International Department of the Communist Party.
Tensions between China and the island nations with diplomatic ties to Taiwan were highlighted when Tuvalu’s foreign minister withdrew from a United Nations ocean conference on Monday after China blocked three Taiwanese members of the Tuvalu delegation.
Conroy said the Pacific Islands Forum has been bringing the region together for 50 years and that it is “the heart of Pacific regionalism.”
Before the meeting, he outlined the new Australian government’s commitments to support the region, including an Australia Pacific Defense School that would provide training to defense and security forces.
The pledge, first made in the election, to double funding for aerial surveillance of the Pacific Exclusive Economic Zones would increase maritime security and reduce $150 million ($NZ238 million) lost each year to illegal fishing. , get it back, he said.
Australia this month partnered with Pacific island nations on a breakthrough agreement at the World Trade Organization to limit fishing subsidies used by China’s high seas fishing fleet, which had encouraged unsustainable overfishing, he said.
“This will be good news for the Pacific environment — and it will be good news for the Pacific countries economically,” he said.