Reuters
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Fiji’s protection minister mentioned on Sunday that local weather change posed the largest safety menace within the Asia-Pacific area, a shift in tone at a protection summit dominated by the battle in Ukraine and disputes between China and the United States.
The low-lying Pacific islands, which embody Fiji, Tonga and Samoa, are a number of the most susceptible international locations on the planet to the intense climate occasions brought on by local weather change.
Fiji has been battered by a sequence of tropical cyclones lately, inflicting devastating flooding that has displaced hundreds from their houses and hobbled the island’s financial system.
“In our blue Pacific continent, machine guns, fighter jets, gray ships and green battalions are not our primary security concern,” Inia Seruiratu, Fiji’s Minister for Defense, mentioned on the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s high safety assembly.
“The single greatest threat to our very existence is climate change. It threatens our very hopes and dreams of prosperity.”
The assembly, which closed on Sunday, was dominated by debate over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and rising tensions between the United States and China over every little thing from Taiwan’s sovereignty to naval bases within the Pacific.
The Pacific islands turned a spotlight of regional tensions this 12 months after China signed a safety pact with the Solomon Islands in April, alarming the United States, Australia and New Zealand, who concern a stepped-up navy presence by Beijing within the Pacific.
Beijing has mentioned that it’s not establishing a navy base within the Solomon Islands and that its purpose is to strengthen safety cooperation with Pacific island nations.
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi carried out a tour of the Pacific islands final month within the hope of securing a sweeping regional commerce and safety pact, however the island nations had been unable to achieve a consensus on a deal.
Seruiratu performed down issues a few battle for affect within the Pacific islands whereas highlighting his nation’s willingness to work with a spread of nations.
“In Fiji, we are not threatened by geopolitical competition,” Seruiratu mentioned in his speech.
“We have to adapt how we work and who we work with to achieve stability.”