AUSTRALIA recently announced that it would develop a new white paper on foreign policy—its first since 2003—reflecting recognition of both a sense of drift in its traditional partnerships and an array of strategic challenges that did not exist 13 years ago. Nowhere is this more evident than in the South Pacific, an expansive, sparsely populated region that Australia has long considered its own backyard. “Our relationships in the South Pacific have drifted off course,” says Michael Wesley, a national-security expert at the Australian National University. “There’s no real sense of an Australian agenda of what we want to achieve.”
The most obvious test in the Pacific is dealing with China. Since convening the first China-Pacific Island Countries Development Forum in 2006, China has disbursed nearly $1.8 billion in aid and investment to Pacific countries, building roads and hospitals and opening mines. More is planned as part of the “Maritime Silk Road” strategy.
Debate rages in Australia about how worrying this is. China has no territorial claims in the South Pacific, unlike in the East and South China Seas....Continue reading
from Asia http://ift.tt/2bLAfh9
EmoticonEmoticon