Header Ads

UK to open diplomatic posts in the Pacific, citing security concerns

Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson says security is one of the reasons why Britain will open three new diplomatic posts in the Pacific Islands.

The development follows Australia's call for the UK to direct more of its aid to the Pacific, to help hedge against China's spending-spree in the region.

Johnson announced at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in London that Britain would open nine new diplomatic posts in Lesotho, Swaziland, The Bahamas, Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and - crucially for Australia - Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu.

Johnson said Britain wanted to expand its focus across the globe after Brexit and cited three reasons including security.

“As a Commonwealth family of nations, it is in our shared interest to boost prosperity, tackle security issues and clear up the environment.

“These new diplomatic posts are in regions which provide huge potential and opportunity post-Brexit for British businesses and will help us to deepen our relationships across the Commonwealth.

“After we leave the EU, Global Britain will remain outward facing, open for business and a champion of the rules-based international order.”

The new posts will open in the next two years. It will be the first time the British have opened a mission in Samoa since the beginning of the last century. They closed their postings in Vanuatu in 2003 and in Tonga in 2006.

Last week, Fairfax Media revealed that Beijing had sounded out Vanuatu about building a military base there, which would put Chinese warships on Australia's doorstep.

Turnbull met Vanuatu's Prime Minister Charlot Salwai in London on Wednesday and told reporters a short time later: “The Prime Minister of Vanuatu has made it very clear, quite unequivocally, the media reports about Chinese interest in establishing a military base in Vanuatu have no basis in fact so he has said those reports are absolutely untrue, that's what he said.”

On Thursday, Turnbull said the Australian government would fund an undersea fibre-optic cable connecting Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands to the internet, cutting out the Chinese company Huawei. The funding will come from Australia's aid budget.

Australia fears that China could try and use the infrastructure to tap into Australia's telecommunications networks.

Earlier this week, the Minister for International Development and the Pacific, Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, called for Britain to send more aid to the Pacific after Brexit.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who has presided over the largest ever cuts to the aid budget, said the British would be resetting its relationships with the rest of the world as it leaves the European Union.

Jonathan Pryke, director of the Lowy Institute's Pacific Islands Programme, has calculated that China spent US$1.7 billion on 218 projects in the region between 2006 and 2016. China has also showered the tiny states with cheap loans to build infrastructure, many of which Australia fears the nations cannot afford to ever repay, leaving them indebted to Beijing.

British Prime Minister Theresa May spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday.  A spokesperson for Number 10 said: “They agreed that the UK and China would continue to work together to identify how best we can cooperate on the Belt and Road initiative across the region and ensure it meets international standards”.

May also raised the South China Sea, according to the spokesperson.

“The Prime Minister also noted the need to recognise and respect the international law of the sea, in the context of adherence to the wider rules-based international system” .

SOURCE: SMH/PACNEWS

Powered by Blogger.