Australia has offered visas and climate finance to Tuvalu in a security pact to counter China’s influence in the Pacific region
Australia has announced a security guarantee to the Pacific nation of Tuvalu to respond to military aggression, protect it from climate change and boost migration in a pact aimed at countering China’s influence in the Pacific.
Under the treaty announced by Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his Tuvalu counterpart Kausea Natano, Australia will also vet Tuvalu’s security arrangements with other nations.
Albanese said it was Australia’s most significant agreement with a Pacific Island nation, giving “a guarantee that upon a request from Tuvalu for any military assistance based upon security issues, Australia will be there.”
Tuvalu is one of just 13 nations to maintain an official diplomatic relationship with Taiwan, as Beijing has made increasing inroads into the Pacific.
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Under the treaty, “both countries commit to mutually agree any partnership, arrangement or engagement with any other state or entity on security and defence related matters in Tuvalu,” Albanese said in a press conference on the sidelines of a Pacific leaders meeting in the Cook Islands.
An Australian government official said this requirement covered any defence, police, port, telecommunications, energy or cyber security arrangements by Tuvalu.
Although Australia has defence agreements with other Pacific Islands nations, in a region where China recently struck a security pact with Solomon Islands and is seeking to expand its policing ties and infrastructure projects, the Tuvalu treaty goes much further in positioning Australia as its primary security partner.
Migration allowance
Australia would allow 280 people a year to migrate from Tuvalu, boosting remittances back to the island nation with a population of 11,000, which is threatened by rising sea levels caused by climate change.
Natano said Tuvalu
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