CHINA
Apia, SAMOA — China will seek to expand its economic and diplomatic influence in the South Pacific at a forum this weekend, amid growing concern from the US and its allies over Beijing’s push in the strategically important region.
Vice-Premier Hu Chunhua will lead the Chinese delegation at the...
Apia, SAMOA — China will roll out fresh offers of cash and red-carpet trips when Chinese Vice Premier Hu Chunhua meets Pacific leaders in Samoa next week to spruik Xi Jinping’s signature Belt and Road Initiative.
Mr Hu, a senior Chinese Communist Party Politburo member, will try to convince Pacific...
Apia, SAMOA — China's ambassador to Samoa labelled critics of Beijing's activities in the Pacific "ignorant" and "prejudiced" Tuesday in the latest testy public missive from the rising Asian superpower's diplomatic corps.
Beijing's growing influence in the Pacific islands was a major theme at a...
Funafuti, TUVALU — Pacific island leaders do not share Australia's concerns about China's rising influence in the region, Samoa's Prime Minister Tuilaepa Malielegaoi said Thursday.
While Canberra and Washington fear China's long-term ambition is a military base in the Pacific, Malielegaoi said he...
Funafuti, TUVALU — The Pacific Leaders Forum in Tuvalu is shaping up to be a fiery one as superpower interests threaten to push aside regional concerns.
Island nations consider climate change to be the biggest threat facing the region but western powers, such as Australia and the US, are more...
Asau, SAMOA — Early in the morning, before sunrise, low tide on the Samoan island of Savai'i reveals the remnants of an old American airstrip, washed away by decades of erosion, cyclones and tsunamis.
The World War II site in Asau, which also hosts a 1960s-era concrete wharf in its well-protected...
MANILA, Philippines — The US Coast Guard will expand its presence to the Asia Pacific in the coming months amid China’s growing influence in the region.
Adm. Karl Schultz, commandant of the US Coast Guard, said in a telephone conference with reporters that they are “doubling down” in Oceania in the...
NUKU’ALOFA, Tonga (AP) — The days unfold at a leisurely pace in Tonga, a South Pacific archipelago with no traffic lights or fast-food chains. Snuffling pigs roam dusty roads that wind through villages dotted with churches.
Yet even in this far-flung island kingdom there are signs that a battle for...
Pohnpei, FSM — Pacific fisheries ministers want to see negotiations to end harmful fisheries subsidies.
Meeting this week in Pohnpei, the ministers and senior government officials say the subsidies can be a constraint on the ability of small island states to develop their own fisheries.
Of the...
Apia, SAMOA — With just over a fortnight left before the opening of the Pacific Games in Samoa a ceremony has been held in Faleata to mark China's handing over of a brand new multi-sport centre and the completion of refurbishment work on existing games venues.
Speaking at the ceremony yesterday...