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Dialogue, cooperation keys to success for Partners of the Blue Pacific initiative, analysts say

Tom Abke

Australia, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States launched the Partners of the Blue Pacific (PBP) initiative in June 2022 to enhance cooperation with Pacific Island Countries (PICs).

PBP stands in contrast to a one-sided Pacific Islands scheme recently proffered by the People’s Republic of China (PRC), according to analysts.

“The PBP initiative involved prior consultation with representatives of Pacific Island Countries,” Carlyle Thayer, former director for regional security studies at the Australian Command and Staff College, told FORUM. “China’s approach was to dispatch Foreign Minister Wang Yi on an eight-country visit to the South Pacific. Wang met with PIF [Pacific Islands Forum] leaders in Fiji [in late May 2022] and presented them with a draft agreement entitled ‘China-Pacific Islands Countries Common Development Vision’ without prior consultation. This draft agreement was rejected, and China had to go back to the drawing board.”

Henry Puna, secretary general of the PIF, the region’s leading intergovernmental organization, said in a statement that the PBP “announcement places emphasis on utilizing Pacific-led processes and elevating Pacific regionalism, with the Pacific Islands Forum at its center.” He said he’s looking forward to “deepening mutual understanding” with the PBP partner countries.

Australia and New Zealand are among the 18 PIF member states. Japan and the U.S. are among PIF’s nonmember dialogue partners.

Thayer said a recent security agreement between Beijing and the Solomon Islands, a PIF member state, was the catalyst for the PBP initiative. The controversial pact would allow the Chinese Communist Party to berth warships and deploy security forces in the Solomon Islands.

“Regional security analysts are near unanimous that the five PBP members must lift their game by more frequent high-level visits to the Pacific, really listen to the concerns of Pacific Islanders and their leaders, and not treat Pacific Island Countries as pawns in a geopolitical game against China,” he said.

The PBP launch followed talks between the founding partners and PIF officials, Thayer said. The joint statement noted that the PBP will select its “lines of action and its flagship projects” under the guidance of PICs. Priorities include climate change, connectivity and transportation, maritime security and protection, health, prosperity and education.

Shortly after the 51st meeting of PIF leaders in Suva, Fiji, in mid-July 2022, where they adopted their 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent, the U.S. offered to host a meeting of PIF foreign ministers and PBP partners to discuss next steps. (Pictured: Ratu Inoke Kubuabola, Fiji’s special envoy to the Pacific, right, greets Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Suva, Fiji, in July 2022.)
In contrast to the PRC’s initiative, which is bilateral and only includes PICs that have diplomatic relations with Beijing, “the PBP initiative is open and includes all the PIF members as well as PIF dialogue partners who subscribe to its aims,” Thayer said.

For the PBP to succeed, Thayer said, PIF leaders must identify priorities in implementing their 2050 strategy and gain agreement from PBP colleagues.

“Following that, a leaders’ summit meeting should be held to approve a multiyear plan of action with concrete and practical steps, including how to involve the PIF’s other dialogue partners,” he said.
Tom Abke is a FORUM contributor reporting from Singapore.

IMAGE CREDIT: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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