Anthony Albanese to tackle ‘aggressive China’

Anthony Albanese will raise concerns over the security agreement between Solomon Islands and ­Beijing in his talks with national leaders at the Pacific Islands Forum in Fiji next week.

Anthony Albanese in Sydney on Friday. Picture: Getty Images

Anthony Albanese will raise concerns over the security agreement between Solomon Islands and ­Beijing in his talks with national leaders at the Pacific Islands Forum in Fiji next week, arguing it served the national interest for him to attend.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Mr Albanese in Sydney, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Friday that she expected the security agreement to be raised. But she did not share her Australian counterpart’s more robust comments on the ­regional outlook, signalling the two leaders had different ­approaches to the new era of growing strategic competition.

Ms Ardern has used the two leaders’ meeting this week to champion the sovereignty of Pacific ­Island nations, arguing they should be free to pursue closer relations with nations of their own choosing without outside interference.

On Friday, she said that Australia and New Zealand “shouldn’t suddenly say to sovereign nations that they have to pick for whom their relationships are with”.

“It should be the Pacific priorities first and foremost.”

Ms Ardern said it was important to think about how the Pacific could “have a bit more of a structure and architecture” to deal with how issues like Honiara’s security agreement with Beijing could be discussed while “still maintaining our individual sovereignty”.

Earlier in the week, Ms Ardern attracted criticism for saying that Pacific Island nations should not be forced to “pick sides” and that it was a mistake to link Russia’s ­invasion of Ukraine to a broader issue of “democracy versus autocracy”.

Mr Albanese was more forceful in his language and singled out China, warning it had become more aggressive under the leadership of Xi Jinping. He said he would defend Australia’s values on the international stage.

He also provided an assurance that there was “no doubt that ­security and security agreements will be a topic at the PIF” and that he wanted Australia to be the ongoing security partner of choice for its Pacific neighbours.

“That is one of the reasons why I am determined to attend. It is in Australia’s national interest for me to do so,” he said. “I’ll also be putting very much Australia’s national ­interest and our concerns about some of the developments that have occurred in the region.

“We know we are living in an era of strategic competition in the region. Australia’s friendship and relations with … sovereign nations of the Pacific are ones of a friend, a friend that is historically played a role in the region of being a security partner of choice.

“We are going through a period of strategic competition in the ­region, that perhaps it wasn’t there a decade or more ago, that under Xi, China has changed its position. It is more forward leaning, it is more aggressive … But we will stand up for Australian values.”

Mr Albanese is keen to take a strong stand in countering ­Chinese influence in the region after he accused the former ­Coalition government of bungling Australia’s foreign relations when it emerged that Beijing and Honiara had clinched a new security agreement, raising the prospect of a Chinese military base 2000km off the Australia coast.

In a joint statement, Mr Albanese and Ms Ardern recognised climate change as the “single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security and wellbeing of the peoples of the Pacific” with both leaders discussing the need to “deliver effective climate finance and address ­climate adaptation.”

Defence Minister Richard Marles defended Mr Albanese’s trip to Fiji for the forum.

“You know, we’ve seen the consequences under the former government of not paying enough attention to the Pacific and our close region … We have put an emphasis on that from the very beginning,” he told the Nine Network.