Yesterday
Google in $102m Aussie-US deal to run internet cables to Pacific islands
The agreement will expand an existing commercial project by the tech giant to run internet to eight nations in the region.
- Trevor Hunnicutt
This Month
Pacific ‘realistic’ on call for Australia to stop fossil fuels
Australia and Fiji have upgraded ties following prime ministerial talks in Canberra.
- Andrew Tillett
‘Don’t make us choose’: Fiji PM’s fears over US-China tensions
Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka says the rivalry between the United States and China is “intensifying”.
- Andrew Tillett
Why diplomacy with China is so frustrating
Beijing’s representatives are always scared they could be the next to vanish, just like foreign minister Qin Gang did this year.
- Cindy Yu
Westpac to maintain Pacific presence, cancels sale of PNG, Fiji banks
The federal government is keen for Westpac to maintain its foothold in the South Pacific, as China’s influence in the region expands.
- James Eyers and Andrew Tillett
September
- Exclusive
- Australia's China challenge
‘We have the money, markets’: UK bid for Australia’s critical minerals
A visiting UK minister is making the case for British investment in resources while also warning about Chinese coercion.
- Andrew Tillett
Biden says Vietnam engagement aimed at global stability, not China
Vietnam’s Communist Party leadership formally raised the country’s ties to the United States to the highest level in Hanoi’s diplomatic hierarchy.
- Peter Baker and Katie Rogers
August
How Fiji got a nasty lesson in Chinese authoritarianism
The Pacific nation watched in shock as Chinese security agents marched what it said were 77 criminal suspects onto a plane and flew them away for detention in China.
- Michael E. Miller and Matthew Abbott
Chalmers opens door to quitting China-led bank
Jim Chalmers says he takes seriously Canadian concerns over alleged Chinese Communist Party dominance within Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
- Andrew Tillett
Labor’s $7m could pave way for Pacific NRL team
Taxpayer support for a Pacific Championship is adding momentum for a Pacific Islands NRL team as a way to help check Chinese influence.
- Andrew Tillett
Australia targets China with $4.8b ‘dollars and jobs’ aid shakeup
Australia will insist infrastructure in poorer countries maximises local benefits, in contrast to Beijing using projects to create jobs for Chinese workers.
- Andrew Tillett
July
EU leader pays rare visit to Philippines after stormy period
Ursula von der Leyen arrived in Manila on Sunday night for the first such top-level visit in almost six decades of relations with the Asian nation.
- Jim Gomez
US, Australia tighten military alliance ties
American intelligence analysts will be embedded within Defence’s spy agency in Canberra, and northern bases expanded to accommodate US aircraft.
- Andrew Tillett
Australia will make US missiles to boost war supplies
Australia will help make missiles locally for the United States after the Ukraine war exposed the danger of Western stockpiles being quickly exhausted.
- Andrew Tillett
China pushes for joint military drills as Washington top guns land
Chinese ambassador Xiao Qian says Beijing is committed to peaceful development on the eve of high-level defence talks between Australia and the US.
- Andrew Tillett
Albanese, Hipkins sound the alarm over Solomons police pact with China
Australia and New Zealand will update defence ties amid a ‘deteriorating strategic environment’ following leaders’ talks.
- Andrew Tillett
Fiji PM cancels China trip after ‘colliding with door’
The excuse for pulling out of the trip has raised eyebrows, not least because Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka has sought to distance his country from Beijing.
- Natasha Frost
Blinken warns of China’s ‘problematic behaviour’ in Pacific
The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the tiny kingdom of Tonga, as the US steps up diplomatic efforts in the Pacific to counter China’s influence.
- Lucy Craymer
- Exclusive
- Australia's China challenge
Whistleblower urges Australia cut ties with ‘Chinese Communist’ bank
Bob Pickard quit the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, complaining its upper ranks were dominated by Chinese Communist Party members.
- Andrew Tillett
‘Un-neighbourly’: Sogavare lashes Australia over Chinese security deal
Solomons Island PM Manasseh Sogavare has accused Australia and the US of foreign interference after they called for transparency over a new Chinese police agreement.
- Andrew Tillett
