Tuvalu Says To Revisit Australia Climate Refuge Pact - Barron's
Tuvalu Says To Revisit Australia Climate Refuge Pact | Barron's
Tuvalu Says To Revisit Australia Climate Refuge Pact
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Tuvalu's new government said Wednesday it would revisit a landmark pact offering its citizens a climate refuge in Australia over "sovereignty" concerns.
The low-lying Pacific island state, threatened by rising seas, said in a statement it wanted to work with Australia to create a "workable arrangement" that would safeguard its sovereignty.
Under the treaty inked between the two countries in November, Tuvalu's 11,000 citizens would have the right to live in Australia if their homeland is lost beneath the Pacific.
The pact commits Australia to defending Tuvalu in the face of natural disasters, health pandemics and "military aggression".
But it also offers Australia a say in any defence pacts Tuvalu signs with other countries, raising concerns on the island that Tuvalu was handing over its sovereignty.
In a statement, the island's new government said it supported the "broad principles and objectives" of the treaty.
But it criticised it what it deemed a lack of transparency or consultation with the people of Tuvalu on such an "important and groundbreaking initiative".
Tuvalu's government said it planned to work with Australia towards a "workable arrangement" that would advance the treaty's goals, "in particular safeguarding the integrity of the sovereignty of Tuvalu."
The agreement is seen as a significant strategic win for Australia as it fends off China's attempts to expand its security reach in the Pacific region.
Tuvalu's Prime Minister Feleti Teo was sworn in Wednesday, a month after elections, following stormy weather that stranded some lawmakers on outlying islands.
Two of the country's nine coral islands have already largely disappeared under the waves, and climate scientists fear the entire archipelago will be uninhabitable within the next 80 years.
Under the climate refuge treaty with Australia, the number of Tuvaluans able to move to Australia would initially be capped at 280 per year.
Australia also pledged to spend Aus$16 million (US$10 million) buttressing the country's shrinking shorelines and reclaiming lost land.
The pact will have to be ratified by each country before coming into effect.
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