Australia

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/2310833

Australia said Pacific Island leaders meeting at a summit in Tonga endorsed a contentious regional policing plan Wednesday, a move seen as trying to limit China's security role in the region.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said leaders had agreed to establish up to four regional police training centres and a multinational crisis reaction force.

Under the plan, a corps of about 200 officers drawn from different Pacific Island nations could be dispatched to regional hot spots and disaster zones when needed and invited.

"This demonstrates how Pacific leaders are working together to shape the future that we want to see," said Albanese, hailing the agreement.

He was flanked by leaders of Fiji, Palau, Papua New Guinea and Tonga -- a symbolic show of unity in a region riven by competition between China and the United States.

[...]

China's regional allies -- most notably Vanuatu and Solomon Islands -- had voiced concern that the policing plan represented a "geo-strategic denial security doctrine", designed to box out Beijing.

[...]

Australia and New Zealand have historically been the region's go-to security partners, leading peacekeeping missions in Solomon Islands and training in Nauru, Fiji and Papua New Guinea.

Policing, however, has increasingly become a cornerstone of Beijing's efforts to build Pacific influence.

China tried and failed to ink a region-wide security pact in 2022, but has since been plying some under-resourced Pacific police forces with martial arts training and fleets of Chinese-made vehicles.

Australia and longtime ally the United States were caught napping in 2022 when China secretly signed a security pact with Solomon Islands -- the details of which have not been made public.

China now maintains a small but conspicuous police presence in Solomon Islands, sending a revolving cadre of officers to train locals in shooting and riot tactics.