Australia to stand with Pacific islands on

climate crisis and ‘respect’ region, Penny

Wong says
New foreign affairs minister tells Pacific leaders Australia ‘will
listen because we care’ after reports China may be seeking
security agreement with Kiribati
Senator Penny Wong acknowledges the importance of climate action to Pacific
islands, saying Australia stands ‘shoulder to shoulder’. Photograph: Saeed
Khan/AFP/Getty Images
Daniel Hurst Foreign affairs and defence correspondent
@danielhurstbne
Mon 23 May 2022 10.16 BST

Australia’s new foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, will seek to improve
relations with Pacific island countries, flagging an early visit to the region
and promising to be “a generous, respectful and reliable” partner.

China’s new security deal with Solomon Islands was a point of political
dispute during the Australian election campaign and there are now
reports that Beijing could be planning to strike a similar agreement with
Kiribati.

Shortly after being sworn in as foreign affairs minister in Canberra on

Monday, Wong recorded a video message addressed to Pacific island
leaders.

In it, she said the new Australian government “knows that nothing is more
central to the security and wellbeing of the Pacific than climate change”.

“We have heard the Pacific and we will act – standing shoulder to shoulder
with the Pacific as we address the climate crisis,” Wong said in the video.

Labor has pledged to increase Australia’s 2030 emission reduction target to

43% compared with 2005 levels, and will seek to jointly host a UN climate
conference with the Pacific. But regional leaders have called on Australia to
go further by taking steps such as committing to allow no new coal and gas
projects and to curb fossil fuel exports – steps which Labor has not
adopted.