Pacific island leaders and top diplomats from key partners including China and the United States have gathered in Tonga for a week of talks on decolonisation of New Caledonia, climate change and regional security and cohesion.
The Forum Leaders Meeting for Pacific island nations opened Monday in the Kingdom of Tonga.
Melodic Tongan choir singers and dancing school children in traditional dress welcomed foreign leaders to the seaside capital Nuku’alofa for this year’s Pacific Islands Forum
The Pacific Island Forum’s importance as the peak regional diplomatic body is growing as geopolitical competition heats up in the Pacific Islands. Nations are contending with creeping militarisation and an unprecedented battle for influence as the U.S and allies like Australia push back against China’s inroads.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will also participate in meetings of the 18-member PIF in Nuku’alofa, where he will amplify calls from Pacific leaders about the need to take faster and stronger action on climate change.
As leaders met, a 6.6-magnitude earthquake struck the main island of Tongatapu at a depth of over 100 kilometers but no tsunami warning was issued for one of the most at-risk countries in the world for natural hazards.
A record number of attendees are registered for this year’s forum, including the largest ever Chinese delegation, civil society groups and business lobbyists.
Speaking at the opening of the summit, PIF Secretary General Baron Waqa said it was a “pivotal time” in the region’s history.
“We may be small island countries but we are a force to be reckoned with,” he said in his speech. “We are at the centre of geostrategic interest, we are at the forefront of a battle against climate change and its impacts.”
Waqa said regional unity was essential to meet the challenges facing Pacific people.
“We need to remain vigilant on issues of regional security and we must, must ensure that these respond to national and regional needs,” he said.
High on the agenda for leaders will be climate change, a regional policing initiative, the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific, and the applications of U.S. territories Guam and American Samoa for associate member status.
Fiji’s Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka will also outline his vision for an “ocean of peace” to be declared in the region.
“We have to make sure our foreign affairs are conducted in a way that does not interfere with others,” Rabuka told reporters after a church service on Sunday.
“We’d like to remove the issue of fear. If we are friends with China, [or] we are friends with America and some are not – that should not create any fear.”
For Pacific island leaders, addressing the turmoil in the French territory of New Caledonia – which has full PIF membership – will be among the most pressing issues.
The other pressing security challenge facing Pacific leaders is the unresolved crisis in French territory New Caledonia, which quickly reared its head on opening day.
“We must reach consensus on our vision for a region of peace and security,” said Tongan Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni.
“We must honour the vision of our forefathers regarding self determination, including in New Caledonia.”
Much of New Caledonia’s ethnically Melanesian Kanak population fears that recent voting reforms put forward by Paris could crush their dreams of independence.
It is a cause that resonates widely in the Pacific bloc, which is stacked with former colonies now fiercely proud of their hard-won sovereignty.
In mid-May, the French government’s backing of electoral reforms that would have diluted the voting power of New Caledonia’s indigenous Kanak people triggered weeks of violent riots in the capital Noumea.
The unrest resulted in the deaths of 11 people, more than two billion euros (US$2.24billion) in economic damage and the deployment of thousands of French police and special forces. The electoral changes were shelved ahead of French National Assembly elections in late June but tensions remain high.
A PIF fact-finding mission to New Caledonia, which was scheduled for last week, was deferred amid reports of disagreement between the territory’s pro-independence governing coalition and France.
Some Pacific leaders are calling for a fresh referendum on independence in France’s Pacific territory.
Leaders are expected to mount a renewed push for a homegrown climate adaptation fund, an idea that has stalled as much-needed foreign contributions dry up.
They will also mull over coal-heavyweight Australia’s bid to host the COP climate conference in 2026.
The fractious topic of deep-sea mining does not sit on any official agenda, but will likely be a topic of heated debate behind closed doors.
Forum host Tonga sits at the vanguard of nations eager to open-up the emerging industry, joined by fellow forum members Nauru and the Cook Islands.
But others such as Samoa, Palau and Fiji see it as an environmental catastrophe in the making, giving their full-throated backing to an international moratorium….
The Forum, founded in 1971, comprises 18 members from across Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia, as well as Australia and New Zealand. It has said climate change is the region’s single greatest concern, but geopolitics will cast a long shadow over proceedings.
Billions of dollars worth of aid is being pumped into the region annually and some 18 new embassies have opened since 2017.
“There is a real sense that heightened geopolitical interest means bigger delegations and more interested actors outside the immediate forum family,” Dr Anna Powles, a senior lecturer at the Centre for Defence and Security Studies at Massey University in New Zealand, told BenarNews.
“The Forum will be safeguarding the agenda to ensure it doesn’t become an opportunity to advance geopolitical interest, as has been the case in the past,” she said.
