Pacific pals Mannasseh Sogavare and Anthony Albanese hug it out
Anthony Albanese has met one of his greatest strategic challenges in the Pacific and embraced Solomon Islands leader Mannasseh Sogavare in their first face-to-face encounter.
Anthony Albanese has met one of his greatest strategic challenges in the Pacific with a sign of personal friendship, warmly embracing Solomon Islands leader Manasseh Sogavare in their first face-to-face encounter in Suva.
The Prime Minister arrived at the Pacific Islands Forum in Fiji on Wednesday and will use Thursday’s leadership retreat to tell his counterparts that Australia will be focused on responding to climate change, Covid-19 and how to best navigate increasing great power competition in the region.
Mr Albanese is aiming to reset relations with Australia’s Pacific neighbours, promising to establish more authentic partnerships based on greater respect for their choices while condemning a lack of leadership from Canberra in previous years.
In an emptied room in the Grand Pacific Hotel in the Fijian capital, Mr Albanese extended his arms in a warm gesture of friendship towards Mr Sogavare, who eagerly accepted the invitation.
“Welcome,” Mr Albanese said.
“I need a hug,” Mr Sogavare replied.
The pair exchanged a long handshake as they joked about their attire and why Mr Albanese was not decked out in a more colourful shirt like that worn by the Solomons Prime Minister.
Mr Albanese, who spent Wednesday night watching the State of Origin rugby league match with Pacific leaders, used his meeting with Mr Sogavare to say the relationship with Honiara should be based on “trust and mutual understanding”.
The warm approach came after Mr Albanese criticised the security deal between Honiara and Beijing as a “Pacific stuff-up” and a grand failure of Australian foreign policy during the recent Australian election campaign.
Mr Albanese told Mr Sogavare it was “very good” to meet him in person and thanked the Pacific leader for speaking to him previously over the phone to address “our common interests”.
Mr Albanese said these included “climate change, dealing with the challenge, but also regional security issues.”
“The relationship between us is very important and I think that there is much more that we can do to co-operate and to develop those relationships of trust and mutual understanding for our joint benefit and as members of the region we want to advance the Pacific. So thank you for meeting with me,” Mr Albanese said.
Mr Sogavare said Australia and the Solomon Islands were a family.
Before the meeting, Mr Albanese said he would raise the Chinese presence in the Solomon Islands directly with Mr Sogavare but would do so as part of a “respectful discussion”.
“We don’t think that is in the interests of the region,” he said. “Our position has been outlined consistently.”
Mr Albanese’s pitch to Pacific leaders was a promise to spend more time listening and he refrained from publicly critiquing China.
“We have … two ears and one mouth for a reason,” he said.
“We should use the ears twice as much as our mouth. If you do that. you will learn from each other. We want to listen to what the priorities are of the Pacific from the Pacific. That’s what we want to hear.
“We want to provide assistance based upon their needs going forward. And that assistance shouldn’t be a matter of transactional arrangements.”
The role of the Pacific as a battleground for great power rivalry between China and the US provided the backdrop to his meeting with Mr Sogavare, with US Vice-President Kamala Harris having addressed Pacific leaders earlier in the day at the invitation of Fiji’s Prime Minister and PIF chairman, Frank Bainimarama.
Unaccredited Chinese officials slipped into the main room in the Grand Pacific Hotel to listen to Ms Harris deliver her speech, took notes and then were escorted from the room.
Ms Harris used the address to say the US would step up its engagement, unveiling $600m over the next 10 years for economic development and ocean resilience in the Pacific.
She said the US would move to establish two new embassies in Tonga and Kiribati, appoint the first-ever American envoy to the Pacific Islands Forum while overseeing the return of peace corp volunteers to the region.
She also conceded the Pacific had not previously “received the diplomatic attention and support that you deserve”.
“We are going to change that,” she said. “The US has an enduring commitment to the Pacific Islands which is why President Joe Biden and I seek to strengthen our partnership with you.”
Drawing a contrast with Beijing without directly referencing China, Ms Harris sketched out the importance that the US attached to nations in the Pacific conducting their affairs “free from aggression or coercion.”
“At a time when we see bad actors seeking to undermine the rules-based order, we must stand united,” she said.
Mr Albanese welcomed American efforts to deepen engagement but warned that Australia had also been responsible for a lack of leadership in recent times.
“It is a critique I believe that you may have heard myself and the Foreign Minister (Penny Wong) make,” he said.
“We had not paid enough attention.”
Mr Albanese held a series of bilateral meetings on Wednesday including with Mr Sogavare, Mr Bainimarama, the Samoan Prime Minister, Fiame Naomi Mata’afa, and the President of the Federated States of Micronesia, David Panuelo.
The Prime Minister identified climate change as the “dominant” issue for the region and thanked Mr Bainimarama for his efforts in trying to bridge differences between the PIF and Micronesian nations.
Kiribati and the Marshall Islands have withdrawn from the grouping in a sign of turbulence, with some experts fearing that the rift could be exploited by China.
Mr Albanese will on Thursday promote a commitment to build an $83m maritime centre with Fiji to house the Pacific nation’s navy headquarters, as well as a coastal radio station and maritime surveillance outfit.
The project is estimated to be completed by 2024.
It will generate work for Fijian construction companies and boost Fiji’s response to natural disasters.
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