#Fiji Prime Minister

[papuapress]

PCC Welcomes MSG Decision to Engage Further with Indonesia

MEDIA RELEASE: Pacific Churches welcomes Melanesian Spearhead Group move to engage further with Indonesia on the situation in West Papua. In noting the appointment by the MSG of Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka and Prime Minister James Marape of Papua New Guinea (PNG) as special envoys to meet with the President of Indonesia to discuss the pressing issue of West Papua, Pacific Conference of…

[wantoktube]

Fiji and PNG Prime Ministers to.Meet Indo's President on West Papua Issue

Earlier today, the Melanesian Spearhead Group Caucus appointed me as a Special Envoy to address the West Papua issue. Alongside Prime Minister James Marape of Papua New Guinea (PNG), we’ve been tasked with meeting the President of Indonesia to discuss this pressing matter. This significant decision emerged during today’s MSG Caucus meeting when I proposed sending a representative to Indonesia…

[fatehbaz]

In fact, far more Asian workers moved to the Americas in the 19th century to make sugar than to build the transcontinental railroad [...]. [T]housands of Chinese migrants were recruited to work [...] on Louisiana’s sugar plantations after the Civil War. [...] Recruited and reviled as "coolies," their presence in sugar production helped justify racial exclusion after the abolition of slavery.

In places where sugar cane is grown, such as Mauritius, Fiji, Hawaii, Guyana, Trinidad and Suriname, there is usually a sizable population of Asians who can trace their ancestry to India, China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia and elsewhere. They are descendants of sugar plantation workers, whose migration and labor embodied the limitations and contradictions of chattel slavery’s slow death in the 19th century. [...]

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Mass consumption of sugar in industrializing Europe and North America rested on mass production of sugar by enslaved Africans in the colonies. The whip, the market, and the law institutionalized slavery across the Americas, including in the U.S. When the Haitian Revolution erupted in 1791 and Napoleon Bonaparte’s mission to reclaim Saint-Domingue, France’s most prized colony, failed, slaveholding regimes around the world grew alarmed. In response to a series of slave rebellions in its own sugar colonies, especially in Jamaica, the British Empire formally abolished slavery in the 1830s. British emancipation included a payment of £20 million to slave owners, an immense sum of money that British taxpayers made loan payments on until 2015.

Importing indentured labor from Asia emerged as a potential way to maintain the British Empire’s sugar plantation system.

In 1838 John Gladstone, father of future prime minister William E. Gladstone, arranged for the shipment of 396 South Asian workers, bound to five years of indentured labor, to his sugar estates in British Guiana. The experiment with “Gladstone coolies,” as those workers came to be known, inaugurated [...] “a new system of [...] [indentured servitude],” which would endure for nearly a century. [...]

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Bonaparte [...] agreed to sell France's claims [...] to the U.S. [...] in 1803, in [...] the Louisiana Purchase. Plantation owners who escaped Saint-Domingue [Haiti] with their enslaved workers helped establish a booming sugar industry in southern Louisiana. On huge plantations surrounding New Orleans, home of the largest slave market in the antebellum South, sugar production took off in the first half of the 19th century. By 1853, Louisiana was producing nearly 25% of all exportable sugar in the world. [...] On the eve of the Civil War, Louisiana’s sugar industry was valued at US$200 million. More than half of that figure represented the valuation of the ownership of human beings – Black people who did the backbreaking labor [...]. By the war’s end, approximately $193 million of the sugar industry’s prewar value had vanished.

Desperate to regain power and authority after the war, Louisiana’s wealthiest planters studied and learned from their Caribbean counterparts. They, too, looked to Asian workers for their salvation, fantasizing that so-called “coolies” [...].

Thousands of Chinese workers landed in Louisiana between 1866 and 1870, recruited from the Caribbean, China and California. Bound to multiyear contracts, they symbolized Louisiana planters’ racial hope [...].

To great fanfare, Louisiana’s wealthiest planters spent thousands of dollars to recruit gangs of Chinese workers. When 140 Chinese laborers arrived on Millaudon plantation near New Orleans on July 4, 1870, at a cost of about $10,000 in recruitment fees, the New Orleans Times reported that they were “young, athletic, intelligent, sober and cleanly” and superior to “the vast majority of our African population.” [...] But [...] [w]hen they heard that other workers earned more, they demanded the same. When planters refused, they ran away. The Chinese recruits, the Planters’ Banner observed in 1871, were “fond of changing about, run away worse than [Black people], and … leave as soon as anybody offers them higher wages.”

When Congress debated excluding the Chinese from the United States in 1882, Rep. Horace F. Page of California argued that the United States could not allow the entry of “millions of cooly slaves and serfs.” That racial reasoning would justify a long series of anti-Asian laws and policies on immigration and naturalization for nearly a century.

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All text above by: Moon-Ho Jung. "Making sugar, making 'coolies': Chinese laborers toiled alongside Black workers on 19th-century Louisiana plantations". The Conversation. 13 January 2022. [All bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me.]

[workingclasshistory]

On this day, 8 April 2013, former Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher died. Street parties broke out across the UK, particularly in working class areas and in former mining communities which were ravaged by her policies. Her legacy is best remembered for her destruction of the British workers' movement, after the defeat of the miners' strike of 1984-85. This enabled the drastic increase of economic inequality and unemployment in the 1980s. Her government also slashed social housing, helping to create the situation today where it is unavailable for most people, and private property prices are mostly unaffordable for the young. Thatcher also complained that children were "being cheated of a sound start in life" by being taught that "they have an inalienable right to be gay", so she introduced the vicious section 28 law prohibiting teaching of homosexuality as acceptable. Abroad, Thatcher was a powerful advocate for racism, advising the Australian foreign minister to beware of Asians, else his country would "end up like Fiji, where the Indian migrants have taken over". She hosted apartheid South Africa's head of state, while denouncing the African National Congress as a "typical terrorist organisation". Chilean dictator general Augusto Pinochet, responsible for the rape, murder and torture of tens of thousands of people, was a close personal friend. Back in Britain, she protected numerous politicians accused of paedophilia including Sir Peter Hayman, and MPs Peter Morrison and Cyril Smith. She also lobbied for her friend, serial child abuser Jimmy Savile, to be knighted despite being warned about his behaviour. Margaret Thatcher was eventually forced to step down after the defeat of her hated poll tax by a mass non-payment campaign. Pictured: Jimmy Savile welcoming Thatcher to hell, reportedly. Learn more about the great miners' strike of 1984-5 in our podcast series: https://workingclasshistory.com/tag/1984-5-miners-strike/ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=605239344982618&set=a.602588028581083&type=3

[zvaigzdelasas]

Former Fiji prime minister Frank Bainimarama says the country's intervention at the International Court of Justice on the Israel-Gaza issue betrays Fiji's legacy as peacekeepers.[...]

Bainimarama said Fiji's stance "insults the intelligence of every Fijian".

The former prime minister and military commander said that position undoes Fiji's long-standing commitment to neutrality, peacekeeping, and the principles of self-determination and decolonization.

"The coalition government's claim that the occupation of foreign territory by Israel is legal - an argument not even advanced by Israel itself - reveals a disturbing truth that Fiji's voice to the world is hostage to a demented few who are hellbent on destroying our national reputation," he said in a statement on Wednesday"

"This action contradicts our firm stance on the rights to independence and statehood, rights we have championed for our Pacific brothers and for all colonial peoples.

He said Fiji has stood with Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Kiribati, and others in their pursuit of independence.

"We must ask ourselves: with what credibility will we support the independence of territories like New Caledonia and French Polynesia? We must not be selective in our support for statehood and independence.

"Our actions today will define our legacy and our ability to lead in the Pacific and beyond.

"The world should know that the vast majority of Fijians stand on the side of peace. That is our national character and that is the spirit in which we offer our service on the frontlines of conflict zones around the world."

Fiji's human rights coalition has condemned the Fiji government's decision at the ICJ.

The group said the country's "position is profoundly troubling and starkly contrasts the values of justice, freedom, and international law that the Fijian people hold dear".

21 Feb 24

[gabriellademonaco]

Crown Princess Mary’s Official Engagements in April 2023:

14/04: Global Leaders Group on Antimicrobial Resistance

16/04: Queen Margrethe’s 83rd Birthday

17/04: Opening of Exhibition “This is Denmark” in Milan Design Week

17/04: Roundtable Discussion “New European Bauhaus Project”

17/04: Creative Denmark Dinner

23/04: Visit to Vanuatu - Meeting with Minister of Climate Change Adaptation, Visit to Pele Island

24/04: Visit to Vanuatu - Meeting with President & Prime Minister of Vanuatu, Visit to Local Community Etas, Official Lunch

25/04: Visit to Fiji - Welcome Ceremony, Meeting with President of Fiji

25/04: Visit to Fiji - Nabavatu Village

25/04: Visit to Fiji - Reception & Dinner

26/04: Visit to Fiji - Ministry of Lands & Mineral Resources, Sailing Tour, Meeting with Prime Minister of Fiji, Disability Organisations, BOGA, University of the South Pacific

27/04: Visit to Fiji - Blackrock Peacekeeping Camp, Mangrove Planting

28/04: Visit to Sydney - Cycling Tour

28/04: Visit to Sydney - Green Transition Roundtable, Quay Quarter Tower

30/04: 75th Anniversary of the First Female Priest

[allthegeopolitics]

Frank Bainimarama, who was Fiji’s prime minister for some 15 years until losing power in 2022, has been jailed for a year after he was found guilty of using his position to shut down a corruption investigation into a prominent university. Once armed forces chief, Bainimarama seized power in a 2006 coup and later won democratic elections in 2014 and 2018. The 70-year-old narrowly lost the December 2022 election to a coalition of parties led by the current prime minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, but remains a popular figure.

Continue Reading.

[indepwom101]

🇩🇰 Crown Princess Mary of Denmark

Tuesday, April 25, 2023

“Her Royal Highness, the Crown Princess of Denmark, Mary Elizabeth and the UNFPA Executive Director, Dr. Natalia Kanem were hosted to a welcome reception at the Grand Pacific Hotel in Suva this evening.

Crown Princess Mary took a daytrip to Nabavatu Village in Vanua Levu today where she had the opportunity to speak with villagers and saw firsthand the harmful impacts of climate change that some of Fiji’s rural communities are facing.

Addressing the reception this evening, Deputy Prime Minister, Hon. Manoa Kamikamica stated that the visit to the North by the Crown Princess was fitting because she was able to witness how climate change has forced people to relocate from their homes, and when relocation takes place, it is more than just a physical relocation because the extraction of a person from its central being and spiritual locality takes place.

DPM Kamikamica also highlighted that it is critical to be mindful of the impacts of climate change on women and the younger generation when relocation plans take place.”

[ifreakingloveroyals]

28 October 2018 | Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex meet New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, at Government House in Wellington, New Zealand. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are on their official 16-day Autumn tour visiting cities in Australia, Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand. (c) Kirsty Wigglesworth - Pool /Getty Images

[thoughtlessarse]

France's prime minister on Tuesday urged the restoration of calm in New Caledonia after the French Pacific archipelago was rocked by a night of rioting against a controversial voting reform that has angered pro-independence forces. Shots were fired at security forces vehicles torched and shops looted in the rioting, the worst such violence in New Caledonia since deadly unrest in the 1980s. More than 80 people were arrested. New Caledonia, which lies between Australia and Fiji, is one of several French territories spanning the globe from the Caribbean and Indian Ocean to the Pacific that remain part of France in the post-colonial era. It already has special status within France unlike other overseas territories. And while it has on three occasions rejected independence in referendums independence retains support particularly among the indigenous Kanak people. "Shots were fired at the gendarmes using high calibre weapons and hunting rifles. There have been no deaths," High Commissioner of the Republic Louis Le Franc told reporters. Authorities announced a night-time curfew Tuesday and a ban on public gatherings while the main airport was closed and the government dispatched security reinforcements from mainland France.

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The indigenous people support independence? That's virtually unheard of.

[kpforpresident]

if you could visit anywhere on earth you've never been before, BUT you'd have to live there permanently, where would you choose?

Probably New Zealand, their prime minister seems cool as hell and it’s a gorgeous looking country. Also pretty close to Australia, Fiji, etc. and English speaking so I wouldn’t have to learn Cantonese or anything way out of my linguistic skill set 🇳🇿

[bayshorerealestatefiji]

Carpenters $75M Hilton Garden Inn Hotel comprising 178 rooms to open in Suva next year

The Carpenters Group $75 million Hilton Garden Inn Hotel comprising 178 rooms is scheduled to open in Suva in August next year. While officiating at the “Topping Off” Ceremony for the hotel at the Suva Foreshore, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Professor Biman Prasad says this is a milestone project for the Carpenters Group. He says Fiji’s ability to attract large scale…

[shop-korea]

ActiveBuilding- Set up Online Payments

THIS - IS - HOW - OUR - RENT - IS - PAID

WON’T - SUBMIT - CHECKING - INFO - 4

I’M - GOING - 4 - CITI BANK - GREAT $$$

EXPENSIVE - ACCOUNT

I’M - GOING - 2 - PAY - WITH - MASTERCARD

CHECKING - WITH - AMAZON - PRIME - YES

33% - OF - $943 - SSI - DISABILITY - YES FOR

BLINDNESS - THAT’s - $311.19

SO - SEEING - WHAT - IS - AVAILABLE - AT

AMAZON - ENTER - THOSE - NUMBERS IS

BEST - AND - NOT - RECURRING - TRULY

SO - SINCE - ANSWERED - WILL - NOT YES

GO - 2 - JESSICA - TODAY

THEY’RE - BLACKS - WHAT - CAN - U - DO

DISCRIMINATION - OF - NATIONAL ORIGIN

DISCRIMINATION - OF - AGE

FUTURE - MY - TOKYO - GRANDPA 

SCIENTIS

MY - DECEASED - MOM

JAPANESE - PASSPORT - FEMALES

US WORK - VISA

SO - LEAVING - LABRE PLACE

APARTMENTS - LOW INCOME

DEAR - PHILIPPINES - IN - SOUTHERN CA

WESTWOOD - POLICE - ALWAYS - ARREST

USC - STUDENTS - DON’T - GO - THERE

AT - UCLA - FOR - SATs

THEY’RE - CRAZY - AFTER - BLOOD

DEAR - PHLIPPINES - IN - CALIFORNIA

PILIPINAS - YOUR - ENEMY

WE’RE - BRINGING - U 2 - BORA BORA

FIJI ISLANDS - THE - MALDIVES - MORE

INSTEAD

PHILIPPINE - REPUBLIC

TAX - CRIME - SMOKE - FREE

HDG - BANKS

TONGUES - $500 BILLION

SING - TONGUES - $500 BILLION

TAX - PAID

HDG - AIRPLANES - 2 - LEAVE - CALIFORNIA

HANDCUFFING - FUTURE

PUBLIC - SCHOOLS - ALL - AGES - REQUIRED

2 - TAKE - DEPAKOTE - VIOLENT - MEDS

ALL - CHILDREN - TEENS - REQUIRED - BY

REPUBLICAN - PARTY - OF - CALIFORNIA

LAPD - LOS ANGELES - POLICE

WILL - REQUIRE - ALL - STUDENTS - 2 TAKE

DEPAKOTE - 2 - GO - 2 - PUBLIC - SCHOOLS

DEMOCRATIC - PARTY

CLOSING - ALL - PUBLIC - SCHOOLS - 4 EVER

$500 BILLION - X 25 - DAILY - TAX - PAID

NON-FLAMMABLE - DAILY - RECEIVE - 2

LEAVE - UNITED STATES - PERMANENTLY

EUROPE - AND - ASIA - PHILIPPINE

REPUBLIC - GETTING - TOGETHER

NEW - POP - 1.2 BILLION

WE’RE - INVADING - MAKATI - AND

MINDORO - ISLAND - THEN - LIKE

DISNEY - ‘BUZZ - LIGHTYEAR’

CLEAR - COVERS - US - SO - ANY

BOMBS - SENT - THE - SENDERS

GET - BACK - 7 TIMES EA - FORCE

THEY - BECOME - KENTUCKY FRIED

CHICKEN

ALSO - WARNING - CAPITAL ONE, N.A.

NEW - TELEPHONE - NUMBERS

NEW - MOBILE - TEL - SMARTPHONE

2 WEEKS - U - WON’T - B - ABLE - TO

WITHDRAW - USE - YOUR - ACCOUNT

BY - APP - AND - MORE

LIKE - ME - U - HAVE - 2 - BUY - VISA

MASTERCARD - GIFT - CARDS - ONLINE

AMAZON - PRIME

BENIHANA - BRICKELL - ALL - HISPANICS

WILL - SAY - WE - DON’T - ACCEPT - GIFT

CARDS - PAPER - NOW - NOT - PLASTIC

BUT - THEY - ACCEPT - MASTERCARD

10TH ST - BRICKELL

DOCTORS - NURSES - OF - PHILIPPINES

‘THEIR - RIGHT - 2 - REFUSE - FOOD AND

DRINK - 2 - FOREIGN - MEDICAL SERVICE

SO - WHOLE FOODS MARKETS - SAYS

GIFT - CARDS - ENJOY

$3.99 - HUGE - PEPPERONI - PIZZA

REAL - FRESH - AND - HOT - NO - FOOD

ADDITIVES - NO - FAKE - CHEESE

$2.95 - HUGE - BOTTLES - FR - ITALY

NO - ITALIAN - NEED - APPLY

ORGANIC - BLOODY - ORANGE - DRINKS

ORGANIC - SWEET - TANGERING

HOLDS - COLD - BETTER

OVER - 2 YEARS - HUNGRY - AT - PUBLIX

WHAT - AM - I - GOING - 2 - EAT?

2 DAYS - AGO - $2.99 - WHOLE - CHICKENS

INSTEAD - OF - $4.95 - AND - $5.95

NEXT - MONTH - LEFT - WITH

ESTIMATE - $1.66

SO - LOW - INCOME - APT - BUILDINGS

MIAMI - FLORIDA - I - DOUBT - YES THIS

WEEK - WILL - STAY - HOMELESS

MY - MALE - ANGELS - FAILED - AND

ALLOWED - ME 2 BE - ROBBED

THEY’RE - NOBODIES

MY - GRANDPA - TOKYO - MALE

SCIENTISTS - AROUND - ME - PULSE

2 - DISAPPEAR - PULSE - OF THEFT

PULSE - OF - MURDER - DISAPPEARING

THE - HOMELESS - HISPANICS - BLACKS

OF - CUBA - HAITI - COLOMBIA - THE YES

THIEVES

NO - MORE - WILL - I - PRAY - MINISTERING

ANGELS - SENT - 2 - MINISTER - 2 - MY YES

NEEDS

KOREAN - GIRLS - SOME - BIBLE - VERSES

DISCONTINUED

AS - THEY - STAB - YOU - AS - SAME - AGE

AS - KOREAN - MALES - 2 - STRANGERS AS

KOREAN - GIRLS

MY - MALE - ANGELS - ALLOWED - ME - 2

REMAIN - SLEEPING - AS - THEY - TRULY

PLUNDERED - ME - ROBBED - ME

AS - SLEEP - NOT - GRANTED - THE EVIL

WILL - NEVER - PRAY - AGAIN

ANGELS - SENT - 2 - MINISTER - 2 - MY

NEED - 2 B - ROBBED

JESUS - IS - LORD

OUR - BUILDING - AT - 3P - AFTER - JESSICA

ARRIVES - 2 - BOOK - MY - FLIGHTS - AT 

THE - DAILY FLIGHT - CLUB - SINCE - MAIN

LIBRARY - BLOCKED - THAT - WEBSITE AS

I - JUST - NEED - 2 - TALK - SLOW - 2 - THE

BLK - WOMAN - JESSICA

NEW - PROPERTY - MANAGEMENT

TALK - SLOW - LIKE - DRUGGED

WHY - I - LEARNT - THIS - DISTASTEFUL

LANGUAGE - JESUS - IS LORD - KOREA

[zvaigzdelasas]

Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka told parliament on Wednesday the Pacific Islands nation was likely to collaborate with China on a key port modernisation and shipyard project, after discussing it in a meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping. Fiji previously sought Australia's involvement to build a modern ship-building facility at Lautoka, officials and a consultant to Rabuka on the project told Reuters.

22 Nov 23

[swldx]

RNZ Pacific 1111 11 Sep 2024

13690Khz 1058 11 SEP 2024 - RNZ PACIFIC (NEW ZEALAND) in ENGLISH from RANGITAIKI. SINPO = 55434. English, (unscheduled on this frequency) @1059z pips and then @1100z Pacific and World News read by Lydia Lewis. § Fiji police say the drugs seized during the January drugs bust remains all "accounted for in a secure location". It is almost eight months since Fijian authorities raided two warehouses within days of each other in "one of the biggest seizures ever". They captured almost five tonnes of methamphetamine destined for Australia and New Zealand markets. § The Bougainville and Papua New Guinea governments have named former New Zealand Governor General, Sir Jerry Mateparae, to try and resolve an impasse on Bougainville's push for independence. Sir Jerry, a former head of the Defence Force, was also a commander of the Peace Monitoring Group, which provided security on Bougainville after a truce ended the civil war in 1997. In a statement, the governments say this gave Sir Jerry a first-hand understanding of PNG and Bougainville, making him an ideal moderator. § Solomon Islands Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele says it's the responsibility of the State to provide housing for the leader of the country. Manele was reacting to opposition leader Mathew Wale's statement released on Wednesday, in which he claimed the prime minister was renting a house owned by a foreigner for SB$48,000 per month. § A high-profile inmate's work release programme was cancelled after she admitted to having breakfast at a popular eatery in Arorangi last Friday. The Ministry of Corrective Services has confirmed that Diane Charlie-Puna's work release programme has been cancelled following an internal investigation. The former secretary of Infrastructure Cook Islands (ICI), sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment in March this year, was seen enjoying breakfast at the well-known café with a group of people. § More plans have been revealed for next month for King Charles and Queen Camilla's Samoa trip. The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Samoa is the first the King will attend as Head of the Commonwealth. Samoa's Prime Minister Fiamē Naomi Mata'afa, in a public address last week, said all 56 member countries have indicated their attendance. The royal office said as well as attending CHOGM, the King's program in Samoa will support one of the meeting's key themes, "a resilient environment," and the meeting's focus on oceans. § An estimated 600,000 people in Timor Leste, just under half its population, turned out in the baking heat for a mass with Pope Francis at a coastal park synonymous with the country's long struggle for independence from Indonesia. § Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris put Republican Donald Trump on the defensive at a combative presidential debate with a stream of attacks on abortion limits, his fitness for office and his myriad legal woes, as both candidates sought a campaign-altering moment in their closely fought election. A former prosecutor, Harris, 59, appeared to get under the former president's skin repeatedly, prompting a visibly angry Trump, 78, to deliver a series of falsehood-filled retorts. § Sports. @1109z "Pacific Waves" anchored by female announcer. Backyard fence antenna w/MFJ-1020C active antenna (used as a preamplifier/preselector), JRC NRD-535D. 100kW, beamAz 35°(?), bearing 240°. Received at Plymouth, MN, United States, 12912KM from transmitter at Rangitaiki. Local time: 0558.

[head-post]

Pacific Islands leaders endorse controversial regional policing plan

Australia and Pacific Islands nations endorsed a plan on Wednesday to boost regional security by improving police training and creating a mobile regional police unit.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said leaders approved the A$400 million (US$271 million) proposal at a summit in Tonga on Wednesday.

Under the plan, four training centres would be established in the Pacific with a separate centre in the Australian city of Brisbane. The initiative will also create a multi-country police force of about 200 officers who will be deployed to countries in the region in the event of major events or crises. Albanese said as he welcomed the agreement at the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF):

This demonstrates how Pacific leaders are working together to shape the future that we want to see.

He was assisted by leaders from Fiji, Palau, Papua New Guinea and Tonga in a symbolic show of unity in a region where rivalry between China and the US is intensifying.

Peacekeeping missions in Pacific Islands

Australia and New Zealand, both founding members of the MBF, have traditionally been the region’s main security partners, leading peacekeeping missions in the Solomon Islands and providing training in Nauru, Fiji and Papua New Guinea. But China, a major infrastructure lender in the region, is also developing ties, having signed a secret security pact with the Solomon Islands in 2022.

Beijing’s attempt at a region-wide agreement later that year ended in failure, but it is providing martial arts training and Chinese-made vehicles to police in several Pacific countries.

Beijing’s closest allies in the region have expressed concern that Australia’s policing plan is aimed at pushing back against Beijing.

While all forum members have endorsed the deal in principle, national leaders will have to decide how much, if any, involvement they will have.

Some Pacific leaders hope the agreement can plug gaps in their own security, while Canberra hopes it will help “close the window for China to seek a regional security agreement,” Mihai Sora of the Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based think tank, told AFP news agency.

Read more HERE