Page 18 - IB AUG 2019

Politics

later grovelled and apologised to the NZ Commissioner.
leader). Community support Australia’s big announcement in Tuvalu
In the past, Forum leaders used to hold The Forum meeting in Funafuti was was a pledge of A$500 million over five
back on their public criticism of Australian also important for host Enele Sopoaga, years from 2020 to help island nations
and New Zealand behaviour at the Forum, who faces national elections in September. invest in renewable energy and climate
recognising that we are all bound together Tuvalu hasn’t hosted the leaders’ meeting and disaster resilience. But Forum island
by geography and history. Those days are since 1984 and the whole community leaders are angry that the pledge is not
gone. As Australia “steps-up” and New had turned out to assist the international new and additional funding, but simply
Zealand “re-sets” their engagement with delegations. It was a very positive and drawn from existing aid funds.
the region, the old paternalistic rhetoric enthusiastic welcome to the atoll nation. Australian aid to the Pacific has been
about working with “our backyard” and It follows the unprecedented visit to “stepped up” under the Coalition govern-
“the Pacific family” doesn’t wash any Tuvalu last May by UN Secretary General ment - but only by slashing aid to Africa
more. Antonio Guterres. Stopping off as well in and South East Asia. Australia’s official
In the new geo-political context, Forum Fiji, Vanuatu and New Zealand, Guterres development assistance (ODA) is currently
Island leaders are being wooed by a range was photographed for the cover of Time 0.22 per cent of Gross National Income
of old friends such as Japan and the Euro- magazine, with water lapping around (GNI) and will continue to fall in coming
pean Union, as well as new partners: China his legs. At the Forum, island leaders years. Ewen Macdonald, the new head of
with loans and infrastructure; Cuba with were pushing for the strongest possible the Office of the Pacific within Australia’s
medical training; India with technology language in the final communique and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
transfers; Germany with technical assis- climate declaration, to take to next month’s (DFAT) told a Senate Estimates Committee
tance and funding for development – this UN Secretary General’s Climate Action last year: “In terms of volume of money
list goes on. Today, Australia and New Summit in New York. it is not the lowest, but in terms of GNI,
Zealand are not the only game in town Last year’s Forum in Nauru was marked it is the lowest since records were kept
and Pacific leaders have learnt to leverage by tense exchanges, including a Chinese in 1974.”
these alternatives. Canberra wants to be walkout of the Forum partner dialogue, Speaking after the Smaller Island States
the donor of choice, but China has deep American bluster from the US Secretary meeting in Funafuti, Sopoaga welcomed
pockets. of the Interior, the police detention of a NZ Australian financial support, but stressed:
A week before the Tuvalu summit, a journalist for talking to refugees and more. “No matter how much money you put on
PNG press release citing Prime Minister This year the tone was more low-key, de- the table, it doesn’t give you the excuse
James Marape said that Port Moresby was spite ongoing disputes over China/Taiwan not to do the right thing – that is, cutting
seeking to refinance its national debt from and Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris down your emissions, including not open-
China. Marape later walked back from Agreement. The Indonesian delegation ing your coal mines.”
the statement, but the point was made. A was disappointed that all Forum leaders Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine
flurry of cables between Canberra, Tokyo backed Vanuatu’s call for stronger action told Islands Business: “We’re discouraged
and Washington will help PNG negotiators by Indonesia on human rights abuses in and disappointed at the fact that Australia
talk to the World Bank and Asian Develop- West Papua, encouraging Jakarta to set a is still actively using coal for their own
ment Bank, and get a much better deal to date for a visit by the UN Human Rights power generation, and it looks like that is
address PNG’s debt pressures.

Pacific leaders line-up for their official photo, ahead of a long day of negotiations.
18 Islands Business, August 2019