SYDNEY: Fiji’s prime minister said Wednesday that China should not be allowed to gain a permanent military foothold in the strategically contested South Pacific region.
China has spent years cementing its influence in a string of Pacific island nations, challenging traditional security partners such as the United States and its ally Australia.
Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka on Wednesday hit back at suggestions that China could turn its growing sway into a permanent security presence.
“If they want to come, who would welcome them? Not Fiji,“ he told reporters during an address at Australia’s National Press Club.
“And I think that China understands that well.”
Former coup leader Rabuka said the South Pacific should be an “ocean of peace”, free from the ambitions of jostling superpowers.
Aid and development should not be offered to climate-threated Pacific nations with strings attached, he added.
“We do not want superpower rivalries or big power rivalries to be played out in the Pacific,“ Rabuka said.
“China’s participation in our development should not affect how we interact with Australia, New Zealand and America.”
Beijing has spent hundreds of millions of dollars building sports stadiums, government offices, hospitals and roads in Pacific nations such as Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.
The diplomatic charm offensive has already borne fruit.
Kiribati, Solomon Islands and Nauru have in recent years severed longstanding diplomatic links with Taiwan in favour of China.
Solomon Islands is seen as a particularly close friend of China in the region.
It inked a secretive security pact with Beijing in 2022, fuelling fears China may one day seek to use the archipelago as a military base.
