Pacific experts have panned claims that new Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong singlehandedly took down Beijing’s efforts to sign 10 island nations onto a sweeping economic and security pact.
James Cox, director of Pacific advocacy group Peacifica, said any suggestion that a quick visit from a minister from the newly elected Labor government could shift the balance in the Pacific was “absurd.”
“The change in government will certainly have been noted with interest by Pacific leaders, but that’s about it,” he wrote in a post on Twitter, noting that the situation in the Pacific was far more complex.
“Two points show that things aren’t as simple as Sen. Wong going to Fiji and saving the day: 1. The [Federated States of Micronesia’s] president’s great cautionary letter was written well before Wong came to Fiji; 2. Fiji’s [prime minister] is one of the more pro-China Pacific leaders.”…