Penny Wong is embarking on her third international trip since she was sworn in as foreign minister and will travel to two more Pacific countries, Samoa and Tonga, while Australia and China compete to influence the region.
Before embarking on his flight on Wednesday evening, Wong said Australia would “increase our contribution to regional security” and work together with Pacific countries “like never before”.
Wong has placed great emphasis on building stronger connections with the Pacific countries, whose leaders have repeatedly said that action on the climate crisis is a higher priority for them than geopolitical rivalries.
On a two-day visit to Fiji last week, Wong said Australia wanted to prove that it was a reliable and trustworthy partner for the Pacific countries and was “determined to make up for” what he described as “a decade lost in the ‘climate action’.
Following the Albanian government’s first plenary meeting of the ministry on Wednesday, Wong said he would fly back to the Pacific to “renew and strengthen Australia’s deep bonds of friendship and family.”
“I look forward to hearing from Samoa and Tonga leaders on how the Australian government can better implement the new energy and resources we are bringing to the Pacific,” Wong said in a statement.
“We understand that we must work together like never before, for our peoples and for future generations.”
Wong said the government was focused on making “a unique contribution from Australia to help build a stronger Pacific family”.
This would include social and economic opportunities, such as pandemic recovery, health, development and infrastructure support, as well as through Pacific labor programs and permanent migration.
“We will increase our contribution to regional security [because] we understand that the security of the Pacific is the responsibility of the Pacific family, of which Australia is a part, “said Wong.
Wong joined Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the Quad Summit in Tokyo on Tuesday last week, where he also met with his counterparts in the United States, Japan and India.
After his next visit to Samoa and Tonga, he will return to Australia, before flying with Albanese to Indonesia on Sunday.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (left) meets with Vanuatu Prime Minister Bob Loughman in Port Vila on Wednesday. Photo: Ginny Stein / AFP / Getty Images
As a sign of growing competition for influence in the region, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is also in the final stages of a marathon visit of eight countries to the Pacific.
In a setback for China, the Pacific countries refused to sign a comprehensive economic and regional security agreement proposed by Beijing, following a crucial meeting of Pacific foreign ministers and their Chinese counterpart on Monday.
Pacific journalists have expressed concern over the lack of transparency about the Chinese Foreign Minister’s trip.
The new Australian government wants to persuade countries in the region to look with skepticism at Beijing’s security assistance offers and consider the consequences for their sovereignty within 10 years.
An article in the China Daily urged the Albanian government to “seriously consider the choice between repeating the mistakes of its predecessor and acting as a mediator between the United States and China.”
The article said that while the election had “created an opportunity for Australia to adjust its policy to China”, the space for this movement was “quite limited, as both the ruling parties and the the opposition blames China’s deteriorating bilateral ties. “
The Chinese embassy in Canberra said on Wednesday that Beijing “never interferes in the internal affairs of other countries, never links political threads and never seeks geopolitical interests.”
“China’s friendship with the countries of the Pacific islands has been open, above all, and has passed the test of history and time,” an embassy spokesman said.
“China’s cooperation with the Pacific Islander countries is not directed at third parties and does not seek exclusive rights.”
The embassy spokesman said China is “ready to improve communication with all countries concerned about the Pacific islands, especially Australia and New Zealand.”
In a second statement issued later on Wednesday, the Chinese embassy denied that China was competing with Australia for influence and said it “had no intention of establishing military bases” in the Solomon Islands.
“China respects Australia’s historical and traditional ties to the region and there is enough space in the vast Pacific Ocean for China, Australia and all island countries to share peace, development and prosperity,” he said.
During the election campaign, Labor characterized the signing of a security agreement between China and the Solomon Islands under the watchful eye of Scott Morrison as the biggest failure of Australian foreign policy in the Pacific since World War II.
Morrison had maintained that China was exerting “enormous pressure” on the countries of the Pacific islands.
New Defense Minister Richard Marles said on Wednesday that “it is not in our power” to prevent countries from reaching agreements with China, but “what is in our power is to build our own relations with the Pacific.”
“We become the preferred natural partner if we do the work,” Marles told ABC.
In an interview with Sky News, Marles said that China “had tried to shape the world around it under President Xi in a way we had never seen before, and that posed huge challenges for us.”
When asked if China was Australia’s biggest security threat, Marles said, “It’s definitely our biggest security concern.”
Workers have pledged to increase Australia’s emissions reduction target by 2030 by 43% compared to 2005 levels, but regional leaders would also like coal and gas projects to be reduced. fossil fuel exports.
At the 2019 Pacific Islands Forum, then-Tuvalu Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga described how talks nearly collapsed twice amid “iron” clashes with Morrison over the “red lines” of Tuvalu. ‘Australia on climate change.
On Monday, Pacific Islands Forum Secretary-General Henry Puna called for “China and our international partners to make nationally determined enhanced contributions in line with the 1.5C track and zero net for to 2050 “. China is currently committed to zero net by 2060.