Great Power Rivalry Looms Over Pacific Islands Forum In Palau
· World · The Independent, Al Jazeera
Leaders of 18 Pacific Island nations and territories gathered in Palau for the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting, with Palau's population of 18,000 expected to swell to 20,000 as delegates arrived ahead of Monday's official opening. Palau's President Surangel Whipps Jr. urged major powers not to treat the Pacific as a theatre for geopolitical competition, urging that talks focus on climate change and struggling island economies. Powerful nations including China, the United States, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand have intensified efforts to court alliances among forum members, with their conflicting bids for influence threatening to derail past annual summits. The forum's small members, some with populations in the low thousands, hold vast exclusive economic zones rich in fisheries and seabed minerals, making them strategically important as global tensions rise across the wide Pacific Ocean. Decisions at the forum are traditionally reached by consensus rather than voting, in keepi
Why it matters
Pacific Island nations control enormous ocean territory rich in fisheries and minerals, and their alignment choices directly shape the military, trade and resource balance between China and the US across a region India also depends on for maritime trade and strategic depth in the Indo-Pacific.
Read the original report — The Independent
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