Sydney, Australia – The 51st Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Leaders’ Meeting, taking place this week in Fiji, is shaping up to be the most significant regional summit in years.
The COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and US-China rivalry have shaken the strategic region in the years since its leaders last met in person in 2019.
However, several parties were conspicuously absent from the event.
Kiribati, a nation of 33 islands located roughly midway between Australia and Hawaii, on Sunday announced it had again withdrawn from the PIF over a rift stemming from a disputed leadership change that allegedly sidelined Micronesian nations. Kiribati and four other Micronesian states had threatened to withdraw last year, but a “Micronexit” was averted after a deal to keep the bloc was struck early last month.
The forum, which includes 16 small island nations along with Australia and New Zealand, also breaks convention and postpones the in-person meeting of ministers of the dialogue partners, a gathering of representatives from 21 external partners including the United States and China that usually coincides with the summit . Keeping partner countries at bay potentially gives Pacific nations more breathing room to focus on domestic affairs as the outside world becomes increasingly active in their region.
“I think it’s a good decision,” Robert Bon, a former Vanuatu lawmaker who now serves as an adviser to the foreign minister, told Al Jazeera.
“We need to get our house in order before we talk to the rest of the world. We need to rebuild consensus among ourselves as we enter the post-Covid era.”
Pacific Islands Forum leaders meeting this week to launch its 2050 strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent [File: Mario Tama/Getty Images]
The forum aims to launch a myriad of issues ranging from climate change to security and connectivity as part of its new vision for regional development, the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent.
“It’s about taking control of our economic sovereignty,” Zarak Khan, director of programs and initiatives at PIF’s Fiji secretariat, told Al Jazeera.
“Strategy 2050 is our north star. It’s about securing the prospects, the people and the place of our region. It is also about investing in research, information technology, e-commerce and education to realize the potential of our young population. We will do this by using sustainable finance to build a knowledge economy to complement the blue economy.”
Although the strategy is scheduled to be launched this week, some leaders say the process is still far from complete.
“Our own position is still a bit unclear when it comes to this,” Vanuatu’s Bon said of the initiative.
“I’m not hearing a well-articulated answer as to exactly how the strategy will be implemented, and I don’t think other neighboring nations are much ahead of us.”
Bohn said that while developed countries would prefer the region to adopt a unified strategy, it is unclear whether the Pacific island nations are ready for a unified approach.
“There is a lot of work to be done to come up with a strategy that works,” he said, adding that different conditions in the region make a “one-size-fits-all solution” difficult to grasp.
Khan said the 2050 vision will not be fulfilled all at once.
“There will be steps to get there. The Pacific draws inspiration from development models from Asia, such as Singapore’s, which uses incremental five-year plans to achieve long-term goals,” Khan said.
“Following Thursday’s launch, we will enter the implementation plan phase which will see further meetings in September and October where we will discuss agency delegation, resource allocation, identify specific targets and put in place enabling action plans that will be finalized at that time.’
Recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic will be high on the agenda at the 51st PIF Leaders’ Meeting [File: Mario Tama/Getty Images]
Overcoming the lingering effect of the pandemic in the region will be among the key items on the agenda.
“Pacific island countries remain extremely vulnerable to the health and economic effects of the pandemic,” Melissa Conley Tyler, program manager at AP4D, a Canberra-based think tank, told Al Jazeera.
“For example, as well as the immediate impact on tourism, closing schools for long periods during the pandemic has huge long-term effects on education.”
Conley Tyler said Pacific leaders were concerned about the potential for a “lost decade” or even a lost generation due to the pandemic.
“Daily, widespread struggles to access basic services – such as health, education, financial services, markets and income-generating opportunities – pose major challenges,” she said.
The ‘blue economy’ – a broad term that describes approaches to sustainable maritime economic activity – is expected to feature prominently in the upcoming strategy.
Khan said Pacific nations have much to teach the world about sustainable fishing practices, which can be done through consultations with the institutional partners of the 2050 Strategy.
Bohn said Vanuatu, an archipelago of about 320,000 people located about 800 km (500 miles) west of Fiji, was reorganizing its bureaucracy for the first time in decades to better focus on the blue economy. The new Ministry of Fisheries, Oceans and Maritime Affairs is expected to be established by the end of the year.
“We’re focusing on the blue economy, but we’re also going green and we’re increasingly expected to meet the same standards as developed countries, which presents another challenge,” Bohn said.
“So we’re wondering how developed countries are going to approach climate change and what’s coming in terms of tangible aid.” We will have to buy new environmentally friendly vessels, for example, but where are the funds for that?’
Khan said sustainable financing would be critical to ensure small island nations are not burdened with debt.
“There are cases of small Pacific countries prematurely graduating from least developed country (LDC) status, which kicks the development aid ladder out from under their feet.”
Climate finance is an issue shared by political experts in Australia, which is not only a PIF member but also the region’s largest foreign aid donor.
“I hope one of the things on the agenda is how Australia can support international leadership and diplomacy in the Pacific on climate action,” Conley Tyler said.
“Australia has changed its declarative climate policy, confirming that climate change is the greatest threat to the Pacific region,” she added.
“Australia must join the Pacific in meaningful collective diplomacy on climate change. Australia raised the possibility of co-hosting a Conference of the Parties [COP] meeting with Pacific Island States and I hope that this is something that will be discussed at the summit.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is holding a virtual meeting with counterparts from 10 Pacific islands on Thursday [File: Vaitogi Asuisui Matafeo/AFP]
Australia is not alone in offering avenues for dialogue. As Pacific leaders seek to pause the geopolitical maneuvering between the US, its allies and China, larger powers continue to jockey for influence.
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi is trying to make his presence felt by holding a virtual meeting with 10 Pacific island counterparts on Thursday, the final day of the forum. The meeting comes after China in May failed to convince leaders to sign a security pact that would have strengthened its influence in the region.
“We are busy enough preparing for the meeting without undue outside interference,” Bohn said. “There is a risk that the meeting will distract from the summit itself, but there is also a danger for China.”
“They want to be careful about making demands that island nations don’t want to put up with.” Pacific Islanders don’t like to be pushed too hard.”
The US, Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Japan recently launched their Partnerships in the Blue Pacific (PBP) initiative to promote “more effective and efficient cooperation in support of Pacific Island priorities”.
Yet there is criticism from some Pacific scholars that PBP nations are “co-opting” the Blue Pacific narrative and “undermining” the Pacific’s own established principles for their own geopolitical ends.
“They have to be careful how they approach it,” Bohn said.
“My advice to these five countries would be: don’t let your reaction to China’s intervention lead you to react in a way that is also not acceptable to the island nations. I hope all countries can slow down and listen to the island nations themselves.”
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