Australia to boost cyber security and provide vehicles for Solomon Islands Pacific Islands Forum
The Pacific Minister Pat Conroy is in Honiara on Thursday, where he will announce a $20 million support package for the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) leaders meeting.
Leaders at the meeting will grapple with a host of issues, including climate finance and Australia's bid to co-host a Conference of the Parties climate meeting, a new "Oceans of Peace" security framework championed by Fiji's prime minister, and a potentially contentious review of the Pacific's diplomatic architecture.
But the gathering will also inevitably be seen as a litmus test of China's sway in Solomon Islands, where Beijing has rapidly built political influence since establishing ties with Honiara in 2019.
Earlier this month China's ambassador to Solomon Islands handed the Acting Prime Minister Fredrick Kologetoa a $US1 million ($1.5 million) donation to buy 27 vehicles which will ferry around Pacific leaders at PIF.
Australia's $20 million package will be broader, providing funding for about 60 vehicles, cyber security, road upgrades and logistics support.
Australia has not directly criticised China's contribution to the meeting, but Mr Conroy said the Pacific was "best served by Pacific-led institutions and processes".
"Australia's commitment to Solomon Islands and the broader Pacific is steadfast. We are stronger together," Mr Conroy said.
China is also expected to push for its policing teams to play a visible role providing security at the leaders meeting, something Australia will be keen to prevent, in order to burnish its credentials as a security partner for the Pacific.
During an interview with the ABC on Tuesday while visiting Papua New Guinea, Mr Conroy reiterated that China was "seeking a permanent security presence in the Pacific".
When the ABC asked him if China might try to leverage its Pacific policing links to help it establish "dual use" commercial infrastructure which it could exploit for military purposes down the track — something Australian officials have warned of privately — Mr Conroy said that was a "reasonable conclusion" to draw.
The ABC has been told the pacific minister will also use his visit to Honiara to announce the government will deliver on its 2022 election promise to double funding for aerial patrols delivered under the Pacific Maritime Security Program, which he will cast as a major win for regional security.
Pacific nations have become increasingly alarmed by the illegal fishing in the region, which has devastated ecosystems and livelihoods, costing them up to $500 million in lost revenue over recent years.
In 2022 Labor promised that if elected it would increase funding to the program by $12 million a year from 2024-25, and federal government tender documents — first reported on by Reuters — suggest the government will pour a total of up to $477 million into the program over the next decade.
While there's only limited public data available on illegal fishing in the Pacific, analysts have previously told the ABC that vessels from China and Taiwan are responsible for much of the devastation.
While in PNG Mr Conroy took a thinly veiled swipe at Beijing on illegal fishing, labelling it a "scourge," and saying countries which failed to rein in it were "literally stealing food out of the mouths of Pacific Island people".
"And I would urge all balanced observers to reflect on the countries that allow that activity to occur and think do they have the interests of the Pacific islands of the heart, if they allow that illegal fishing to occur?"
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