Taipei to join PIF leaders’ meeting

Taiwan is to attend an annual gathering of Pacific island leaders in Palau this month, the regional bloc said, overcoming protests from China that saw Taipei barred from the event last year.

China and Taiwan are important partners to the region, a Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) official told reporters late on Friday, after ministers from 18 member states met in Fiji to thrash out priorities.

“Taiwan is a very important development partner. It is not a dialogue partner, however it engages with members of our forum family,” Baron Waqa, the forum’s secretary-general, told a news conference.

Photo: AFP

Palau, host of the Aug. 30-to-Sept. 4 meeting, as well as Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands, are among Taiwan’s 12 diplomatic partners.

Forum members Nauru, Kiribati and the Solomon Islands have all switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to Beijing since 2019.

The Solomon Islands, the host of last year’s leaders meeting, blocked Taiwan from attending, resulting in all external countries being disinvited to the meeting, despite the island states’ reliance on foreign aid and investment.

“This year, it is an open invitation,” said Rick Hou, foreign minister in the Solomon Islands government that took office in May and has swiftly repaired ties with the US, Japan and Australia.

A joint statement condemning China’s test of an intercontinental ballistic missile in the Pacific last month was still being negotiated, Waqa said, confirming that Nauru and Kiribati had held different positions to other forum members.

New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters on Friday accused two states he did not name of appeasing “outsiders” after the meeting failed to agree to the statement.

“Everyone wants that statement out,” Waqa told reporters, adding that the arguments centered on whether it would focus solely on the Chinese missile test or all missile testing in the Pacific.

The US conducts ballistic missile tests in the northern Pacific under a defense agreement with the Marshall Islands.

The Pacific islands also agreed to step up efforts to invite world leaders to attend an October special UN climate change event in Tuvalu.

In Taipei, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan has consistently supported efforts to maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the Indo-Pacific region, and firmly opposes any attempt to unilaterally change the “status quo” through force or coercion.

Taiwan would continue to work closely with like-minded countries to promote a rules-based international order and enhance regional security, it said.

The ministry welcomed Waqa’s reaffirmation at the PIF Foreign Ministers’ Meeting that Taiwan is an important partner of the forum, as well as his reiteration that Taiwan would continue to attend meetings this year, as it has in previous years.

Taiwan would continue to deepen cooperation with PIF member states and other like-minded partners, while contributing to peace, stability and prosperity in the Pacific region, it said.

An official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed separately yesterday that Taiwan would, as usual, send a delegation led by a deputy minister or higher-ranking official to this year’s meetings.

Additional reporting by Huang Ching-hsuan