US funding delays hurt the Pacific – but there are bigger worries | Terence Wesley-Smith and Gerard Finin

A delay by the US in providing crucial funding to Pacific Island nations is fuelling concern in the region – but questions about the competing visions held by the US and regional leaders are even more pressing. The funding is part of longstanding agreements the US has with three nations in the north Pacific, the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), the Marshall Islands and Palau. The agreements, known as the Compacts of Free Association (Cofa), provide a range of assistance to these nations, including visa-free entry to the US, grant…

Climate crisis and China-US rivalry: five top takeaways from the Pacific’s most important summit

Leaders from Pacific island countries – together with Australia and New Zealand – have just wrapped up their most important annual political talks. They wrestled with calls to phase out fossil fuels and discussed how to navigate intense rivalry between the US and China, all while trying to keep a lid on simmering internal tensions. Here’s what we learned from the weeklong Pacific Islands Forum (Pif) summit hosted by the Cook Islands. Fossil fuel phase-out call watered down Pacific island countries are especially vulnerable to rising sea levels and extreme…

Australia news live: Optus network goes down across nation; trains grind to a halt in Melbourne

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Pacific Islands Forum: China-US rivalry takes centre stage as Solomon Islands deepens ties with Beijing

Pacific island leaders are descending on the Cook Islands for the region’s most important annual political gathering, with the talks likely to be dominated by the climate crisis and growing US-China rivalry. The Pacific Islands Forum (Pif) is an 18-member grouping of 16 Pacific nations, including Australia and New Zealand, plus two French territories. This year, Solomon Islands – which has drawn closer to China since signing a security agreement in 2022 – is reported to be sending a delegation led by the foreign minister, Jeremiah Manele, not the prime…

Biden Pacific summit suffers setback as Solomon Islands PM skips meeting

The White House has said it is disappointed the Solomon Islands prime minister, Manasseh Sogavare, will not attend a Pacific Islands summit with Joe Biden next week. The US president will host a second summit with leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum at the White House on Monday as part of his efforts to step up engagement with a region where the US is in a battle for influence with China. “We are disappointed that PM Sogavare of the Solomons does not plan to attend,” a Biden Administration official said.…

Police remove two Chinese defence attaches from Pacific Islands Forum meeting

Two Chinese defence attaches have been kicked out by Fijian police from a Pacific Islands Forum meeting at which the US vice-president, Kamala Harris, was giving a virtual address. The men were sitting in on a session of the forum’s fisheries agency at which Harris announced the step-up of US engagement in the region, believed to be in response to China’s growing influence. They were sitting with the media contingent, but one was identified as a Chinese embassy official by Lice Movono, a Fijian journalist who is covering the forum…