Tonga’s prime minister has joined a chorus of regional leaders condemning China’s testing of a nuclear-capable long-range missile in the Pacific this week, as Foreign Minister Penny Wong drew a sharp distinction between Beijing’s launch and regular United States test firings in the region.
As his nation weighs whether to join Fiji and Australia in a new military alliance, Lord Fatafehi Fakafānua said he was hopeful Australia and Tonga could move quickly to strike an ambitious treaty, possibly by the end of the year.
While China gave Tonga notice of the missile launch, Fakafānua said that “any escalation to militarise the ocean is something that we join the rest of the Pacific family in not supporting”.
“I think it’s created tension in the Pacific, and some of my colleagues in the Pacific have been quite vocal about that,” he told this masthead in an interview in Sydney.
“So let’s just say it’s caused a bit of a stir.”
Albanese said earlier this week that the Pacific Islands Forum was drafting a “very strong” condemnation of the test firing, which he labelled a “provocative act”.
Solomon Islands Prime Minister Matthew Wale has said China’s test is “not something a friend does” and Tuvalu’s Prime Minister Feleti Teo expressed “grave and serious concern and disappointment” about the missile launch.
Palau’s President Surangel Whipps Jr, who will host next month’s Pacific Island Forum leaders meeting, said he was “shocked and deeply concerned about this kind of behaviour”.
Wong told this masthead that previous US tests near nations such as the Marshall Islands “has been agreed with or telegraphed to them, and obviously the United States has a particular relationship with those nations”.
“There is a distinction with China’s action this week. This was quite a different type of political act,” she said.
Celebrating the fact the government had achieved “a number of transformational breakthroughs in the Pacific”, including this week, Wong said Australia would intensify its efforts to boost its influence in the region.
“We can offer proximity, culture, people, access to our labour market. We have the cultural ties, whether that’s NRL or First Nations connections,” she said.
“You’ve got to always keep focusing on the things where we have a comparative advantage.”
Australia and Tonga are seeking to finalise a comprehensive treaty known as the Kaume’a Ofi (close friends) agreement, which the nations last year said would be “transformational” and “write the next chapter of regional integration”.
It would follow recent pacts Australia has struck with Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Tuvalu and Nauru.
Fakafānua, who attended the State of Origin decider with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Brisbane on Wednesday, said he expected the pact would focus on education, health and defence, including maritime awareness, disaster preparedness and climate change adaptation.
“We’re quite ambitious … It could be by the end of the year,” he said when asked about timing, adding officials from both countries would hold negotiations on the details of the pact next month.
Australia and Fiji have flagged they would welcome more Pacific nations with defence forces joining the Ocean of Peace military alliance they signed this week. Tonga would be a logical addition as one of the few Pacific nations – alongside New Zealand and Papua New Guinea – that has a defence force.
While New Zealand has expressed enthusiasm about joining the alliance, Fakafānua said he could see “pros and cons” about signing up. The Australian Defence Force could come to Tonga’s aid in a crisis without the need for a formal alliance, he said.
Asked whether he supports the Australian government’s position that policing and security matters should be handled by Pacific nations themselves rather than outside nations such as China, Fakafānua said: “I think when there’s a fracturing international order … we fall back on our neighbourhood for stability, and more so now regionalism is very important, and it’s good to see the Pacific family coming together.”
He continued: “Australia is a sort of a big brother in the neighbourhood, and we might have points of difference amongst ourselves, but like family, we tend to stick together more than we don’t.”
As a regional bloc, he said the Pacific was “a force to be reckoned with in the international sphere”.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a press conference in Beijing the test was a “routine arrangement” in China’s annual military training programme.
“It is consistent with international law and customary international practice and is not directed at any specific country or target,” she said.
Lachlan Strahan, a former Australian high commissioner to Solomon Islands, said Beijing had damaged its reputation in the Pacific with the “tone-deaf” missile test, which it fired with only a few hours of warning.
“Beijing can be very skilled at friendly diplomacy. They can flatter and make people feel special; they use a lot of highfaluting language about peace, the equality of states and sovereignty that appeals to the Pacific,” he said. “That all looks pretty hollow now.”
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Matthew Knott is the foreign affairs and national security correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X, Facebook or email.
