Taiwan says it wants to come to Auckland summit, creating big headache for Luxon
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is trying to avoid offending China, New Zealand’s largest trading partner, by insisting the Government will abide by decades-long “protocols” when it comes to hosting the Pacific Islands Forum next year in Auckland.
The problem in question is whether to invite high-ranking officials from Taiwan to the forum. The invite could include Taiwan’s Foreign Minister, who said he is keen to attend.
Taiwan is a self-governing island which China claims as its own. It is a development partner of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) and three of the 18 forum countries have diplomatic relations with Taiwan rather than China, including Palau, this year’s hosts.
Taiwan featured extensively at this year’s forum, with the territory sending its Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung. The visit has angered China, whose special envoy for Pacific Island affairs said there would be “consequences”.
The Taiwan Foreign Minister told a press conference with Australian media that either he or another minister would be keen to attend next year’s summit in Auckland.
However, it is unclear whether the New Zealand Government would extend an invite. Luxon, speaking to New Zealand media, would not say whether he would be happy to have a Taiwanese minister attend.
Taiwan Foreign Minister Lin Chia-Lung. Photo / BusinessDesk
When asked about attendance, Luxon said New Zealand would revert to “long-standing norms”.
“There’s protocols around, their participation in the event, making, their engagement available to some of the members of the PIF [Pacific Islands Forum].
“We’ll just go back to the protocols, we’ve managed this issue very well since 1992,” Luxon said, referencing the year PIF states reached a compromise about Taiwan.
Asked whether New Zealand would accept a ministerial visit, Luxon said he would “work that through” next year.
Last year’s Pacific Islands Forum featured a blow-up over the attendance of Taiwan. The hosts, Solomon Islands, refused Taiwan’s delegation visas, a move which threatened to undermine the meeting.
The blowback was so severe that the Solomon Islands Government decided to block invites for all partners, including China and the United States. Only full members attended in the end.
The forum eventually decided to reaffirm a 1992 compromise on how to deal with the fact that some Pacific Islands Forum members recognised Taiwan.
That compromise allowed Taiwan to attend separate meetings alongside the forum and it was affirmed at last year’s forum.
Pacific Islands Forum states are set to debate a more lasting solution, including one which could create a new structure for the way dialogue and development partners engage with the forum.
RNZ Pacific reported that Solomon Islands used a closed-door meeting to ask members to consider whether the leaders’ meeting should be separate from the dialogue partners’ meeting.
Solomon Islands cited the rapid growth of the forum, which now sees thousands of people attend sideline meetings.
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