China, US pledge funds for Pacific Islands ahead of key meet they will not attend
NAURU : A Chinese corporation has pledged A$1 billion (US$651.40 million) to Nauru, the Pacific Islands nation with a population of 12,000, said today, as major powers including the US push for influence in the region.
The announcement comes ahead of a meeting of foreign ministers of the Pacific Islands Forum regional bloc on Thursday and the region's top political meeting next month.
The Solomon Islands, which hosts the annual leaders meeting and is China's biggest ally in the region, made the surprise decision to block 21 donor countries, including China and the US, from attending after pressure from Beijing to exclude Taiwan.
The US expressed disappointment with the move but today made its own US$60 million pledge to the region under a 2022 treaty, as news of the Chinese agreement with Nauru was made public.
'The US deputy secretary of state Christopher Landau told Pacific Islands officials in Washington yesterday that the long-promised funds would be released by the Trump administration,' the state department said.
Meanwhile, Australia, the largest forum member, has sent high-level delegations to Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu for security talks.
Nauru said its foreign affairs minister Lionel Aingimea had signed the proposal in Beijing worth A$1 billion with the China Rural Revitalisation and Development Corporation for economic development.
'The deal was signed last week and would develop Nauru's renewable energy, phosphate industry, fisheries, water, agriculture, transport and health sectors,' the statement said.
A Nauru government official was unable to provide further details.
'Nauru's President David Adeang visited China in July to trace his ancestral roots,' China's embassy in Nauru said last month.
The Pacific leaders meeting in September will consider regional security, with Australia seeking to block China from forging further security ties in its Pacific neighbourhood.
Australia's foreign minister Penny Wong, defence minister Richard Marles and pacific minister Pat Conroy will hold security talks in Vanuatu tomorrow, with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reporting a deal worth A$500 million over a decade under consideration.
Vanuatu said the two countries expected to sign a deal covering infrastructure and economic development next month.
Wong said in a Sky television interview today the Pacific is 'essential to our stability, to our security'.
Marles opened the Lombrum Naval Base in Papua New Guinea today, which he said was the largest security infrastructure project delivered by Australia in the Pacific.
The upgrade to the PNG defence base was funded by the US and Australia.
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