By Kirsty Needham

(Reuters) – Pacific island leaders arrived in Fiji on Thursday for a two-day assembly to formalise the return of Kiribati to the 18-member regional bloc, amid tensions between China and the US within the strategically situated area.

The assembly will even talk about Japan’s plan to launch handled water from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear plant into the ocean, which some Pacific islands concern might contaminate fish shares however Tokyo has stated doesn’t pose a danger, an agenda confirmed.

Kiribati cut up from the Pacific Islands Discussion board on the eve of its final assembly in July, fuelling concern the atoll nation with huge fishing grounds situated 3,000 kms (1,860 miles) southwest of Hawaii, had change into remoted after forming diplomatic ties with Beijing.

“Set towards the backdrop of accelerating geopolitical pursuits in our area, coupled with the actual threats posed by local weather change… solidarity in our Pacific household is ever so important,” Fiji’s prime minister and discussion board chairman Sitiveni Rabuka stated in a press release forward of the assembly.

In Could, China sought however didn’t safe a 10-nation Pacific islands commerce and safety deal, after the discussion board stated unity was the precedence in a area the place a number of states have ties with Taiwan and never Beijing.

Australia and New Zealand, each discussion board members, have criticised China’s push for a policing function within the area.

CHINA PRIORITY

On Tuesday, China launched a paper on President Xi Jinping’s coverage referred to as the “International Safety Initiative”, which lists Pacific island nations as amongst Beijing’s priorities for multilateral safety cooperation.

China would “pay excessive consideration” to Pacific island nations and “enhance the availability of supplies, funds and skills to assist island nations enhance their means to take care of non-traditional safety threats”, the paper stated.

China’s ambitions within the Pacific islands have alarmed the US and its allies, after Beijing struck a safety pact with Solomon Islands.

Australia has moved to improve its navy ties with Fiji, fashioned a safety pact with Vanuatu, and expects to log off a safety take care of Papua New Guinea this yr.

Australia’s Overseas Minister Penny Wong signed a wide-ranging cooperation settlement in Kiribati on Tuesday.

Kiribati President Taneti Maamau stated the settlement lined police cooperation and coaching, maritime surveillance, aviation, local weather change, well being, training and infrastructure.

“In relation to safety, it’s a very clear view, not solely of Australia however of Pacific Island leaders, that we imagine that safety ought to be offered for inside the Pacific household,” Wong advised reporters in Fiji on Thursday, when requested about Kiribati.

Australia, the most important support donor to the area, introduced a A$620 million well being programme for the Pacific islands on Thursday.

Meg Eager, director of the Pacific Islands Program on the Lowy Institute in Sydney, stated the main target of the assembly was “completely a present of unity” after Kiribati had agreed to return.

Discussing the wastewater disposal from Fukushima was additionally a excessive precedence, given the area’s expertise with nuclear contamination after getting used as a bomb testing floor many years earlier, she added.