Tag: Pacific
China’s Pacific plan is ‘clear’ but so is Australia’s intention to be regional partner of choice, Penny Wong says
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Australia has responded to reports that China is pursuing a Pacific-wide security pact with almost a dozen nations, stating that while Beijing’s intentions were clear “so too are the intentions of the new Australian g...
Sushi, Pacific lobster … cheeseburgers: Japanese food fit for a president
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North Korea, China, trade and security. When US presidents visit Japan, the summit agenda practically writes itself. Deciding what to give them to eat, though, is a different matter altogether. When the White House is...
Labor signals more aid to south-east Asia and accuses Scott Morrison of ‘bullying behaviour’ towards Pacific
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Labor has flagged an increase in aid to south-east Asia while ramping up its attack on Scott Morrison by accusing him of “bullying” behaviour that undermines Australia’s relationships with Pacific island countries. Th...
Temper tantrums and invasion threats over Solomon Islands deal with China will push Pacific allies away
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A spectre is haunting the Pacific. It is focused on Solomon Islands today, but has eyes everywhere and might pounce anywhere next. No, I’m not talking about China. I am talking about us. More specifically, I’m talking...
New clues shed light on ‘pivotal’ moment in the great Pacific migration
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The peopling of the Pacific is one of the most significant migrations in human history. And now an archaeological discovery on a small island in Papua New Guinea has recast the early scope of this settlement, in a fin...
Australia anxious to show it didn’t ‘drop the ball’ on Pacific after China and Solomon Islands deal
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As China makes progress on a security deal with Solomon Islands, the Australian government is anxious not to be seen to have “dropped the ball” in the Pacific region. That would be a tad embarrassing, given it has spe...
Telstra buyout of Digicel’s Pacific mobile networks threatened by ‘discriminatory’ new PNG tax
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Digicel Group says it is considering legal options after Papua New Guinea imposed a $100m tax that the telecoms firm said had potential “implications” for the planned AU$2.1bn ($1.57bn) sale of the Pacific’s biggest m...
Power shifts: New Zealand reconsiders Pacific role as China’s influence grows
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In a ceremony in Fiji on Tuesday, New Zealand’s foreign affairs minister, Nanaia Mahuta, unveiled a 14-foot carving, which she called a symbol of “Pacific regionalism”. It was a small but symbolic moment during the f...
Pacific leader urges Solomon Islands to rethink China security deal
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The president of the Federated States of Micronesia has sent an impassioned plea to the Solomon Islands’ prime minister, urging him to reconsider a controversial and “unprecedented” security pact with China. President...
Cathay Pacific plans world’s longest passenger flight, avoiding Russia
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Cathay Pacific is planning the world’s longest passenger flight by rerouting its New York to Hong Kong service over the Atlantic instead of the Pacific, the airline has said, in a new path that steers clear of Russia....
China finalising security deal with Solomon Islands to base warships in the Pacific
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Solomon Islands has signed a policing deal with China and will send a proposal for a broader security agreement covering the military to its cabinet for consideration. According to a copy of the draft security agreem...
Niue becomes second Pacific island in a week to lose Covid-free status
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Niue has reported its first case of Covid-19, becoming the second island in the Pacific to lose its Covid-zero status within a week. The Niuean government says the case arrived on a flight from New Zealand, with 26 ot...
Bitcoin paradise? Briton creates ‘crypto utopia’ in South Pacific
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For the past 12 years Anthony Welch and his partner Theresa have been living a Robinson Crusoe life alone on a South Pacific island mostly untouched by humanity. Welch, a retired British property investor, hopes the t...
Fear and dread: Covid-free for two years, Pacific islands experience explosion in case numbers
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Covid-free for almost two years, some Pacific island nations are suddenly struggling with an explosion in cases as the virus, thought in most cases to be the more transmissible variant Omicron, breaches the defences t...