Jacinda Ardern says Kiribati's Pacific Islands Forum withdrawal 'disappointing'

Monday, 11 July 2022

There are growing suspicions Beijing is behind the country’s exit, with Kiribati close to US military installations and marine resources. (First published July 12, 2022.)

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has downplayed Kiribati’s departure from the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) as she heads to Suva for the first in-person meetings at the Pacific region’s key diplomatic body since the pandemic began.

Ardern said she had been working closely with the forum chairperson to hold the group together. But it is a blow as the forum relies on unity. Pacific analysts say it will be a hugely significant meeting because of the region’s climate and geopolitical pressures, including Beijing’s accelerating interest in the region.

“Our position has been to support the chair to do everything they could to try and keep the forum closely knit and working together,” she said in the Beehive on Monday.

“I think we should do everything we can to continue to work alongside all members of the region and to progress those issues that are of primary concern to us including Kiribati and that is for instance working with them on climate change.”

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Kiribati President Taneti Maamau. His Government has confirmed it has withdrawn from the forum 'with immediate effect'.

Ardern said the Kiribati Government’s decision to leave was not a “wider sign of disunity” – nor did it stop the Pacific’s ability to keep working together. However, she did concede it was “disappointing”.

“I think it is important that we try to the best of our ability to act and speak on as much as we can from the Pacific region as a whole,” she said.

The forum’s 18 member countries include New Zealand, Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

Kiribati said its concerns related to the regional body’s leadership, which is voted between the Polynesian, Melanesian and Micronesian states each year. Tensions have been building since the Micronesian candidate for the top job missed out by a small margin.

In February last year, Micronesian leaders announced they would leave the forum when their candidate for secretary general was passed over for a Polynesian candidate. Micronesian leaders said they would leave the forum in June but released a statement last month saying they were “almost certainly to remain” in the forum.

It comes as the Pacific finds itself at the centre of geopolitical tensions, with geostrategic interest from China, the US and Australia, which has a new Labor Government.

Beijing signed bilateral agreements with almost a dozen Pacific Island nations after a whirlwind tour of the region in late May and early June.

Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong last month undertook a diplomatic tour in the region, in response to China’s accelerating interest in the Pacific.

Associate Foreign Affairs Minister Aupito William Sio spent Friday in talks with foreign ministers in place of Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta, who has Covid. However, Mahuta will join this week.