Canberra to set up defence school for Pacific militaries

Australia will establish a defence school to train Pacific island militaries, according to Canberra’s new Pacific minister, amid intensifying competition for security ties and as Beijing seeks to host a rival meeting to the main regional group, the Pacific Islands Forum, next month.

Australia would double its funding for aerial surveillance of the Pacific islands’ vast fishing zone, and provide financing for Pacific islands to build more resilient infrastructure as Pacific sea level rises were forecast to be four times the global average, Minister for International Development and Pacific Pat Conroy told a Pacific conference yesterday.

“The Australian government knows that the issue of security is inseparable from the issue of climate change,” he said in a video address to the conference in Fiji’s capital, Suva.

During the Pacific Islands Forum taking place in Suva next month, regional leaders are expected to discuss China’s push to strike a trade and security deal with 10 Pacific island nations that have diplomatic ties with Beijing.

A leaked draft of the deal showed it covered fisheries and maritime security as well as police training.

The forum includes Australia and New Zealand – which have expressed concern at China’s recent security deal struck with the Solomon Islands – as well as several nations that recognise Taiwan, and not Beijing.

China, which is not a PIF member, is seeking to host a video meeting with the 10 nations it wants to sign to a multilateral pact on July 14, to coincide with the final day of the PIF leaders meeting, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter.

It also coincides with the day a communique would be expected to be issued by the forum leaders. It is unknown if the meeting with China will go ahead, after some nations were reported to be upset by the timing.

Conroy said the Pacific Islands Forum had brought the region together for 50 years, and it was “the heart of Pacific regionalism”. Ahead of the meeting, he outlined the new Australian government’s commitments to support the region, including an Australia Pacific Defence School that would provide training for defence and security forces.

The pledge, first made at the election, to double funding for aerial surveillance of the Pacific exclusive economic zones would increase maritime security and recoup US$150 million lost each year to illegal fishing, he said.