Opinion: The government knows it has no time to waste as Foreign Minister Penny Wong moves to step up Australia's influence in the Pacific, writes Peter Hartcher
Australia’s new Foreign Affairs Minister, Penny Wong, made Australia’s pitch to the leaders of the Pacific Islands nations last week. On Monday, China’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Wang Yi, made his. He sat down in Fiji with ministers from 10 Pacific island countries to invite them to join Beijing’s sphere of influence.Credit:. But this is only the beginning of the beginning. Whatever happens this week, “China will keep pressing its interests harder than ever,” Penny Wong tells me.
Australia has no time to waste and Wong wasted none. She arrived in Suva to begin her Pacific visit on day four of the life of the new government. It helps to turn up. In the last three years her predecessor, Marise Payne, had made just two trips to the Pacific, visiting just three nations. China’s government “will try to turn all these governments to allow China privileged access to the Pacific’s massive resource zone, there’s a pretty ugly logic to that”.
Third is strategic. By establishing persistent military access to the Pacific islands nations that sit amid vital shipping lanes, China would acquire the ability to put its boot on Australia’s trade and military lifelines to the US and Asia. “Australia’s position is crucial. China is going to want guaranteed access to all these oceans – the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean and the Southern Ocean. Australia’s maritime footprint is an obstacle to all that.”
Of course, Wang Yi did not present China’s interests in this way on Monday when he sat down with the Pacific leaders. He offered them help. In the form of a “Common Development Vision” agreement with a five-year action plan attached.
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