Tuvalu Prime Minister Kausea Natano has pushed back against concerns his country has given too much away in a new security and climate treaty with Australia.
The new deal will see multi-million-dollar investment for climate adaption in the small island nation, but imposes restrictions on who else it can partner up with.
Australia is investing $16.9m to help expand Tuvalu’s land by 6% and will accept 280 Tuvaluans a year to live, work and study.
Under the terms of the new treaty, Tuvalu will require Australia’s agreement on any partnership, arrangement or engagement on security and defence matters.
However, Natano told 1News that Tuvalu will control everything regarding its sovereignty.
“The treaty we have signed is a means of elevating the support in terms of security, economic benefits, and access to [Australia].”
Tongan Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni understands the challenges Tuvalu is facing, with its low-lying atolls making it likely to be one of the first countries significantly affected by climate change.
“Seeing what's happening with Tuvalu and Australia to me, that's a very innovative way of progressing and making sure Tuvalu would be OK if something happens.”
Privately, several Pacific leaders have told 1News that they are concerned about the deal.
A top Pacific specialist said that Australia is following China’s lead in the region.
So-called “soft loans” have been offered to Fiji, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea, said Professor Steven Ratuva at the University of Canterbury.
“That is the new shadow which is casting a lot of doubts about Australia’s engagement in the region.”
Another superpower vying for influence in the Pacific, the United States, sent its UN ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield to the forum.
She said that China has a different approach to working with Pacific countries than the United States does.
“What we want is countries to look at that approach and make sure that what is happening in that relationship benefits them and their people.”
The 52nd Pacific Island Forum finishes today in the Cook Islands.
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