Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Honiara for Pacific Leaders Summit

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The Prime Minister says he's asked officials to press on rapidly with negotiations on a new security treaty with Fiji. He's also defended Australia’s moves to donate 100 million dollars to a new climate fund for pacific nations and bristled when asked why he was travelling in a car donated by China for the event.

Transcript

00:00This defence treaty isn't an entirely new development.

00:05About two months ago Sidveni Rambuka, Fiji's Prime Minister, came to Canberra where he

00:10said he would like a treaty level agreement with Australia.

00:13This is on top of the existing Vivale partnership that has long underpinned the relationship

00:18between the two countries, which already have quite a bit of cooperation in the policing

00:22and even in the military space.

00:24Nonetheless, there seems to be an appetite in both Suva and in Canberra for this to be

00:29taken to a formal treaty level agreement.

00:32That would be quite significant if it is going to be landed.

00:35The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese and the Prime Minister of Fiji, Mr Rambuka, sat down

00:40earlier today for a brief meeting here on the sidelines of the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders

00:45meeting in Honiara.

00:48And Mr Albanese said after their last catch up, Mr Rambuka had written to him asking officials

00:53to start formal negotiations and he said they both had decided to instruct their officials

00:58to now press on with that as quickly as possible.

01:01So it looks like this is happening.

01:02What's it going to involve?

01:04At this stage, we're not entirely clear.

01:06We asked the Prime Minister not long ago at a press conference whether Australia might

01:10look to offer security guarantees to Fiji comparable, for example, to the ones that it's offered

01:15to Tuvalu under the Fallapilli Union.

01:18Mr Albanese simply said it was too early to make a judgement on that.

01:21Let's take a listen to what he had to say.

01:24What it will involve, preliminary discussions have been about increased security agreements

01:33or upgrade in our security relationship.

01:36That could range from increased interoperability, the sort of training that we're seeing with

01:44the Pacific Policing Initiative being expanded to increased engagement between our defence

01:51forces.

01:52I don't want to pre-empt the discussions at early stages, but certainly their relationship

01:59with Fiji is an important one.

02:02Fiji has a very significant position in the Pacific.

02:07Meanwhile, Stephen, Pacific leaders are preparing to officially ratify a new climate finance fund.

02:15What sort of contribution is Australia making to this?

02:18Well, again, Ros, this isn't exactly new because Australia has announced this previously, but Mr Albanese

02:25said today that Australia had confirmed its promise of pouring $100 million into the Pacific

02:31Resilience Facility.

02:32This is a new fund that the Pacific is setting up, in part because it's become quite frustrated

02:38about how difficult it is to get its hands on climate finance, including through multilateral

02:42funds.

02:43So the hope is because this is owned and led by the Pacific, they'll be able to get their

02:47hands on the money that they need very badly, more easily.

02:50Now Mr Albanese was asked whether he could justify this expenditure to Australian taxpayers, especially

02:56those feeling cost of living pressures, and his answer was basically, yes, absolutely.

03:01The climate crisis is a global problem, and Australia has a responsibility, perhaps particularly

03:06as a country that exports large amounts of fossil fuels, to try and help the region deal

03:11with some of its impacts.

03:13Let's take a listen to what he had to say.

03:16Because climate change is a global circumstance.

03:19It is global emissions.

03:22And the people who argue, some people who argue we shouldn't do anything on climate change because

03:28Australia doesn't represent 100% of global emissions and therefore we shouldn't do anything.

03:33There's a contradiction there.

03:35We need to be, not just take action ourselves, we need to encourage positive actions for others

03:43as well, and in the Pacific, we need to provide support for our Pacific family members.

03:50Now, of course, Australia and its climate record is viewed pretty cynically in parts of the Pacific.

03:57A large number of Pacific leaders are very happy to take this money from Australia and they say that

04:02it's very welcome indeed.

04:04But there's also, of course, lingering frustration amongst the Pacific, particularly amongst those countries

04:08that have essentially been calling for quite some time now for Australia to wind down fossil fuel production.

04:14And there are some ministers who are here who continue to say that until Australia does that,

04:19its contributions to the PRF and to other climate funds only tell part of the story.

04:25Now, it's not just climate change, Ros, as we've been discussing,

04:28geopolitical competition more broadly, and China here in Solomon Islands has also been a point of discussion,

04:34even though it's not on the formal agenda.

04:36There was an interesting moment during the Prime Minister's press conference when he was asked about the fact

04:41that he got inside a car that was provided by the Chinese government to the government of Solomon Islands

04:47to help ferry leaders around this event.

04:50In itself, it doesn't really mean anything, of course, but it's a nice little vignette showing how both countries,

04:55Australia and China, are competing furiously to try and show themselves as the partner of choice here.

05:01Mr Albanese, I think it's fair to say, bridled at that question, saying,

05:05seriously, it's a car. It gets you from A to B.

05:08So the Prime Minister, not in any mood to take questions about some of the finer little points of imagery

05:14around the contest here in Solomon Islands.

05:16The Prime Minister, not in any mood to take questions about the December 18th and December 18th,

05:17the current part was already out of the November 19th and January 19th in 1980.

05:22And the Prime Minister, not in the Prime Minister, even in the European Union.

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