![]() Kirsty Needham/ReutersĪn island nation with vast fishing resources The venue of this year's Pacific Island Forum, Grand Pacific Hotel in Suva, Fiji. “The timing of the announcement shows it is meant to be a disruptor to Pacific unity, just when it was about to come up with a collective response on China’s attempt to set up a security treaty in the region.” “Kiribati appears to have been given instructions not to attend,” Brady said, based on her observations of China’s recent activity in the Pacific. ![]() “What is unclear is what President Maamau’s gameplan is, what he’s hoping to achieve by withdrawing Kiribati from the forum, and how this will benefit the people of Kiribati.”Ĭhina may deny playing a role in Kiribati’s decision not to attend the forum, but Professor Anne-Marie Brady, a specialist on China’s policies in the Pacific at the University of Canterbury, said Beijing’s influence is clear. ![]() “There’s clear regional and subregional dynamics at play,” said Anna Powles, a senior lecturer at the Centre for Defence and Security Studies at Massey University in New Zealand. But Kiribati’s decision to go it alone while tightening its economic and diplomatic ties with China shows the depth of the diplomatic challenges in the region – and the pressure Pacific leaders are under as they try to manage their domestic and regional affairs. It’s not clear if Kiribati’s decision to pull out of the forum influenced the scale of the US commitment – the US has been promising greater engagement in the region for months as China sought to strike a flurry of deals with Pacific leaders. The measures will be personally presented to Pacific leaders Wednesday in a virtual address by US Vice President Kamala Harris – underscoring Washington’s efforts to stress the Pacific’s importance to US strategy. The incentives included more funding for fisheries, extra aid, and offers of new US embassies in the Pacific – including one in Kiribati, which along with the Solomon Islands appears to be moving closer to China. Some saw Beijing’s hand in Maamau’s decision to leave the alliance, a claim China’s Foreign Ministry rejected as “completely groundless” during a regular news briefing Monday.īut on Tuesday, it was the United States’ turn to step forward with incentives for Pacific Island leaders to counter Beijing’s efforts to dominate an increasingly competitive geopolitical tussle in a region of great strategic importance.Ī senior administration official told reporters in a call the US was “significantly stepping up (its) game in the Pacific Islands.” President Taneti Maamau not only opted out of the Pacific Island Forum meeting in Suva, Fiji, but withdrew the country from the 18-member group as a matter of principle over a dispute involving its leadership. On a small group of atolls in the central Pacific Ocean, Kiribati islanders celebrated their Independence Day Tuesday with a President who had skipped the region’s first face-to-face meeting in three years. ![]()
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