Security in the Pacific Australia to establish a defence school as China seeks rival meeting

SYDNEY - Australia will establish a defence school to train Pacific island militaries, Canberra’s new Pacific minister said, 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 will 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 are forecast to be four-times the global average, Minister for International Development and Pacific, Pat Conroy, told a Pacific conference on Tuesday.

“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 hold diplomatic ties with China.

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, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.