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 decolonization of New Caledonia, climate change and regional security and cohesion.
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 militarization 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 (62 miles) 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, Pacific Island Forum, or 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 center 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.
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.
“We must honor the vision of our forefathers regarding self-determination, including in New Caledonia,” Tongan Prime Minister Hu’akavemeiliku Siaosi Sovaleni said in his opening address.
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,” said Dr. Anna Powles, associate professor at the Center for Defence and Security Studies at Massey University in New Zealand.
“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.”
BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.