Good Pacific neighbour and security partner of choice

Anthony Albanese has done the right and neighbourly thing by our Pacific family and offered a safe place to stay in times of crisis to the small island state of Tuvalu. The pledge to take in 280 Tuvaluans a year from a population of 11,000 residents is the sort of agreement that will benefit both countries and it cements Australia as Tuvalu’s security partner of choice.

Tuvalu Prime Minister Kausea Natano said the agreement, which was a request from his country, “goes beyond words and has touched our hearts”. Mr Albanese said the agreement was “without doubt the most significant agreement between Australia and a Pacific Island nation ever”. Under the terms of the deal there will be a special visa category, and successful applicants will have special rights to work, study and participate in Australian society. Of course, behind the Tuvalu Falepili Union agreement are promises of cash, the essential currency in Pacific diplomacy. Australia has agreed to support financially Tuvalu’s climate adaptation interests, including $16.9m for the Tuvalu Coastal Adaptation Project that will expand the land of the capital atoll, Funafuti, by about 6 per cent.

Australia will contribute at least $350m in climate infrastructure for the region, including $75m for a program for off-grid and community scale renewable energy in remote and rural parts of the Pacific. Mr Albanese also announced that Australia would contribute an unspecified amount to the new Pacific Resilience Facility, a Pacific-built trust fund that would be established to invest in small-scale climate and disaster resilient projects. Australia also will make an unspecified contribution to the Green Climate Fund and has agreed to be active in advocating to prioritise GCF financing for the Pacific.

In exchange, Pacific leaders have expressed support for the Albanese government’s climate change efforts and to not push the point too heavily that Australia wind down its coal and gas interests in exchange for support for a joint bid for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP31) in 2026. Nor did they object strongly to Australia’s AUKUS deal with the US and Britain that will increase the number of nuclear-powered submarines in our region.

Ultimately, the bigger picture of the Prime Minister’s personal engagement in the Pacific Islands Forum at a time of building economic crisis at home is the need to strengthen our economic and defence ties with Pacific nations against the financial and diplomatic advances of Beijing. The fine print of the Falepili Union – named for the Tuvaluan word for the traditional values of good neighbourliness, care and mutual respect – is all about defence. Under the treaty, Australia commits to providing assistance to Tuvalu in response to a major natural disaster, health pandemic and military aggression. The security aspect is explicit. “To allow for effective operation of Australia’s security guarantee, 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,” the union document says. Mr Albanese said the agreement would “formalise Australia as Tuvalu’s partner of choice”. He did not rule out similar agreements with other Pacific Island nations.

This is the message the Prime Minister will take to California next week for the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation meeting, his second major US visit in as many months. Pacific engagement and China’s military intentions in the region were the obvious concerns for Joe Biden in Mr Albanese’s recent White House discussions. They remain the issues that must inform the response to Mr Albanese’s meetings this week with Xi Jinping.