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Micronesian States Put Break from Pacific Bloc on Hold

It's not yet exactly clear why the president of the Federated States of Micronesia announced the pausing of the withdrawal from the PIF.(Pool Photo via AP: Jason Oxenham)
It's not yet exactly clear why the president of the Federated States of Micronesia announced the pausing of the withdrawal from the PIF.(Pool Photo via AP: Jason Oxenham)
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Micronesian States Put Break from Pacific Bloc on Hold

It's not yet exactly clear why the president of the Federated States of Micronesia announced the pausing of the withdrawal from the PIF.(Pool Photo via AP: Jason Oxenham)
It's not yet exactly clear why the president of the Federated States of Micronesia announced the pausing of the withdrawal from the PIF.(Pool Photo via AP: Jason Oxenham)

Five Micronesian nations suspended on Saturday breakaway plans from a crucial Pacific Islands political bloc as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in the region.

The Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru and Palau "have agreed to temporarily rescind their withdrawal" from the Pacific Islands Forum, the FSM foreign ministry said in a statement.

The five territories announced a year ago they were quitting the group after their nominee lost the vote for a new forum secretary general, said AFP.

They said the majority decision by the 18-nation body to elect former Cook Islands prime minister Henry Puna had overridden an informal agreement that the position would be filled by Micronesia and had caused an irreparable rift.

However, in a statement the Micronesian leaders said they had discussed "specific substantive reforms of the Pacific Island Forum" and had given the forum until June for the reforms to materialize.

The announcement came as Blinken arrived in Fiji in a visit intended to highlight Washington's interest in the region where China has stepped up efforts to build footholds.

The Pacific Islands Forum was formed in 1971 to enhance the economic and social well-being of its 18 South Pacific islands nations which both the United States and China view as being in strategic locations.

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Taiwan President Will Visit Allies in South Pacific as Rival China Seeks Inroads

FILE -Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te delivers a speech during National Day celebrations in front of the Presidential Building in Taipei, Taiwan, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying, File)
FILE -Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te delivers a speech during National Day celebrations in front of the Presidential Building in Taipei, Taiwan, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying, File)
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Taiwan President Will Visit Allies in South Pacific as Rival China Seeks Inroads

FILE -Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te delivers a speech during National Day celebrations in front of the Presidential Building in Taipei, Taiwan, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying, File)
FILE -Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te delivers a speech during National Day celebrations in front of the Presidential Building in Taipei, Taiwan, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying, File)

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te will visit the self-governing island’s allies in the South Pacific, where rival China has been seeking diplomatic inroads.
The Foreign Ministry announced Friday that Lai would travel from Nov. 30 to Dec. 6 to the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Palau.
The trip comes against the background of Chinese loans, grants and security cooperation treaties with Pacific island nations that have aroused major concern in the US, New Zealand, Australia and others over Beijing's moves to assert military, political and economic control over the region.
Taiwan’s government has yet to confirm whether Lai will make a stop in Hawaii, although such visits are routine and unconfirmed Taiwanese media reports say he will stay for more than one day.
Under pressure from China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory and threatens to annex it by force if needed, Taiwan has just 12 formal diplomatic allies. However, it retains strong contacts with dozens of other nations, including the US, its main source of diplomatic and military support.
China has sought to whittle away traditional alliances in the South Pacific, signing a security agreement with the Solomon Islands shortly after it broke ties with Taiwan and winning over Nauru just weeks after Lai's election in January. Since then, China has been pouring money into infrastructure projects in its South Pacific allies, as it has around the world, in exchange for political support.
China objects strongly to such US stopovers by Taiwan's leaders, as well as visits to the island by leading American politicians, terming them as violations of US commitments not to afford diplomatic status to Taiwan after Washington switched formal recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979.
With the number of its diplomatic partners declining under Chinese pressure, Taiwan has redoubled efforts to take part in international forums, even from the sidelines. It has also fought to retain what diplomatic status it holds, including refusing a demand from South Africa last month that it move its representative office in its former diplomatic ally out of the capital.