NZ pushing to create unified Pacific

The Pacific Island Forum may transform into a centre of power, as the region contends with US-China rivalry, and the interests of European and Asian powers.

Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta has been speaking with Pacific Island countries about developing the regional forum into something akin to Asean – a long-standing group of southeast Asian countries that sets the course for their region’s security – with a focus on getting support for climate change efforts. The forum was at risk of fracturing in 2021, when five Micronesia states threatened to withdraw over a dispute about the forum’s leadership.

But, after some intense diplomacy and an attempt by China to persuade 10 members to sign a region-wide deal, the forum has a new sense of unity.

The Government has, alongside Australia, been emphasising the importance of Pacific ‘‘regionalism’’ in recent months.

Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka, in Wellington yesterday, said the region needed to ‘‘collectively create our own stability’’ so Pacific countries would not ‘‘succumb to the temptation of . . . who offers better and who offers more’’.

‘‘New Zealand has done a lot and the rest of the region will have to co-operate as we collectively pursue a stable region.’’

Mahuta attended a meeting of Pacific countries and South Korea in Seoul last week, intent on talking to her counterparts about seeking ‘‘alignment’’ of the interest being expressed in the region by South Korea, Japan, France, Germany, the US and India.

This week, she said there was a ‘‘consolidation’’ among leaders that the interest of external countries should be channelled into the forum’s 2050 Blue Pacific strategy.

This, agreed to by the forum’s 18 members, sets out the region’s goals and commitments in coming decades on issues including economic development, ocean protection and climate change.

‘‘The Pacific leaders have got a very clear sense that with the level of contest in the Pacific region, they [are] certainly in a prime position . . . to address some action points, and the action points are clearly geared towards addressing climate change.’’

Mahuta said the forum could have authority in the region akin to Asean’s ‘‘centrality’’ in southeast Asia. Leaders of the forum will meet in the Cook Islands in November.

‘‘It would not surprise me at all if there are further, broader strategic conversations between the connection of Asean and the Pacific Island Forum, and what they might come together on, so that there is an Indo-Pacific prioritisation of interests.’’

Asean, the Association for Southeast Asian Nations, comprises 10 countries and was begun by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand in 1967 as an alliance against communism. It has since become the central decision-making body in the region, agreeing on how to manage security issues and setting rules for free trade.