Bipartisan bonhomie, vows of climate change action, and security pacts are Australia’s weapons of choice to blunt China’s growing influence in the region.
As the temperature climbs past 29 degrees and humidity hits 79 per cent, Australian and Vanuatu government officials wait patiently on a beach in Port Vila for Wong and Prime Minister Ishmael Kalsakau to arrive. The occasional breeze provides some relief as the wail of police sirens echoing around the city’s hills heralds the motorcade’s approach.
It’s the latter that emerges as the major announcement of Wong’s trip this week. In Port Vila, Wong and Kalsakau signed a security treaty, just the second of such legally binding agreements that Australia has with a Pacific nation; one with Solomon Islands was the first. The challenge for Australian efforts is to constrain where that leverage is exercised and keep China out of the security space. While China may have failed to land its regionwide security deal, it is ever active at the subregional and individual bilateral level.Australian diplomacy is geared towards bolstering collective decision-making through the Pacific Islands Forum, and ensuring security is dealt with in house by the Pacific family.
Generally, though, the four members of the delegation get along well, although there is some disruption in the Federated States of Micronesia when McCormack becomes ill after drinking the local version of kava. He didn’t know sakau is a more potent brew and only a couple of sips should be taken. McCormack emptied his coconut shell.
“That creates a big vacuum in our hotel industry. It’s a slow increase [in tourists]. And most of our hotels that were closed down have not reopened yet... they need a lot of maintenance work to get up and running again.” “We’ve made a very clear statement that we have diplomatic relations with the Republic of China, Taiwan,” he said. “And if you want to be our friend, they’re our friend also. But you’re not going to tell us we can’t be their friend, which is what they [China] want to tell us to do.”
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