Australia details investment in Pacific

CANBERRA, Australia, Nov 11, (AP): Australia’s prime minister on Thursday outlined plans to increase investments in infrastructure in the South Pacific as China’s influence in those nations grows.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison also detailed plans for greater military and diplomatic engagement with Australia’s island neighbors who are increasing looking to China for aid through Beijing’s “Belt and Road” infrastructure program.

“My government is returning the Pacific to where it should be - front and center of Australia’s strategic outlook, foreign policy and personal connections, including at the highest levels of government,” Morrison said in a speech.

The 2 billion Australian dollar ($1.4 billion) Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific will provide grants and long-term loans for investments in telecommunications, energy, transport and water infrastructure, Morrison said.

Another AU$1 billion ($728 million) will be injected into the Export Finance and Insurance Corp, Australia’s export credit agency, which will be given more flexibility to support investment in the region that would benefit Australia, he said.

The Pacific region was estimated to need $3.1 billion in investment a year to 2030, he said.

“It’s in our interest, that’s why we need to do it,” he added.

The Australian Defense Force would also establish an Australiabased Pacific Mobile Training Teams that would visit island neighbors to train their militaries in humanitarian and disaster responses, peacekeeping and infantry skills.

Australia will also put diplomats in all 18 countries in the Pacific Islands Forum, with new embassies planned for Palau, Marshall Islands, French Polynesia, Nui and Cook Islands.

In January, China protested an Australian minister’s criticism that Chinese aid programs in poor Pacific island countries were creating “white elephants” that threatened economic stability without delivering benefits.

Sen. Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, the-then minister for international development and the Pacific, told The Australian newspaper that China was lending to Pacific nations on unfavorable terms to construct “useless buildings” and “roads to nowhere.”

“You’ve got the Pacific full of these useless buildings which nobody maintains, which are basically white elephants,” she told the newspaper.

Fierravanti-Wells later said sustaining debt was a significant threat to economic stability of countries in the Pacific.