By Renju Jose and Lucy Craymer
SYDNEY/WELLINGTON, Sept 1 (Reuters) – China said it had serious concerns about Taiwan’s presence at the annual Pacific Islands Forum in Palau, warning of “consequences” after the democratically ruled island attended the group’s opening ceremony on Monday.
China views Taiwan as its own territory, and China-Taiwan tensions have featured prominently at the meeting, which is intended to demonstrate regional unity.
“There will always be consequences,” Qian Bo, China’s special envoy for Pacific island affairs, said of Taiwan attending the event. “It’s not a threat,” he said without specifying what the consequences would be.
“This is objected to by all, so this should not have happened. We think it’s very inappropriate to do so,” he told reporters on Monday after an opening ceremony in Palau, an archipelago of over 500 islands that has maintained diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said “the Pacific Islands Forum determines what happens here, not any other country,” when asked by reporters about the Chinese envoy’s remarks.
“This is primarily a gathering of the Pacific family … and I look forward to the engagement,” Albanese said on Tuesday.
New Zealand’s Foreign Minister, Winston Peters, echoed this sentiment, saying the group does not take instructions from countries outside of it.
“Taiwan is honoured to serve as a partner in the Pacific, continuing to stand with everyone and work together to make the Pacific more prosperous and peaceful,” Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung said on Monday.
Lin Chia-lung was invited for meetings and side events held alongside the forum. Taiwan is not a formal dialogue partner of the forum like China, but a development partner. The U.S., EU, Britain, Canada, India and Japan are also among the 21 dialogue partners of the forum.
China has gradually whittled away the number of Pacific Island countries with formal ties to Taipei, with only three remaining — Palau, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands.
The leaders of Fiji, Vanuatu, Samoa, Solomon Islands and Kiribati did not attend the gathering of the 18-member group that counts Australia, New Zealand and Pacific island nations as members. Ministers are attending in their place.
Though China is Australia’s largest trading partner, Canberra remains wary of Beijing’s expanding influence in the Pacific and has stepped up security and development ties with island nations to deter any permanent Chinese military presence in the region.
Australia, New Zealand and the United States have long considered the South Pacific to fall within their sphere of influence.
In the latest sign of that effort, New Zealand and the U.S., in a joint statement released on Tuesday during the summit, said they would jointly fund a major upgrade of a World War Two port on a Cook Islands’ atoll.
(Reporting by Renju Jose in Sydney, Lucy Craymer in Wellington and Ben Blanchard in Taipei; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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