00:01Pacific leaders are gathering at their private retreat here at the very end of the Pacific
00:07Islands Forum leaders meeting and near the top of the agenda will be what could be a lengthy
00:13discussion on China's recent intercontinental ballistic test missile launch. This has been
00:18a sensitive topic for the forum and in the lead up to this meeting Pacific foreign ministers
00:24couldn't reach a consensus on a statement that Australia and New Zealand wanted out
00:28criticizing China for launching the missile with almost no notification. This morning Anthony
00:34Albanese and the president of Palau Saranga Whips Jr fielded questions on the launch and the Pacific
00:40response. Some Pacific nations including Kiribati have argued that it's unfair to single out China
00:46because the United States also conducts nuclear missile testing in the region specifically in the
00:52Republic of Marshall Islands but both Anthony Albanese and Saranga Whips Jr said that
00:58comparison wasn't a reasonable war because unlike China the United States has a compact agreement
01:04with the Republic of Marshall Islands that permits testing. Not only that they said the U.S. gives
01:10notice to RMI something that China failed to do. What we saw with the Chinese test was a firing of
01:21a missile
01:22with very little notice certainly not what is expected internationally from a submarine which went across and landed in the
01:35Pacific near Nauru, near Tuvalu with no respect for those nations.
01:43Between Tuvalu and Nauru is Palau. They sent a missile next to French Palau and another one next to Tuvalu
01:52crossing over our air space. They never bothered to tell us that that's what's happening and the Prime Minister is
02:00absolutely correct. The United States has an agreement with the Marshall Islands. They notify and they say it's going there.
02:07What about the rest of us in the Pacific? Don't we deserve the same? And I had said it. I
02:11said there's a lot of space between the United States.
02:13Japan and Guam. Why don't you send it there? Why does it have to come into the middle of the
02:17Pacific when last year we just signed a declaration of peace?
02:21Climate change is also going to be high on the agenda. Leaders are expected to issue a climate declaration after
02:28the meeting in the lead up to the pre-Cop meeting in Fiji and Tuvalu that will set out the
02:33Pacific's position. As ever, Australia is a lagging indicator. It is always going to be harder for Australia to commit
02:40to a phase out of things like fossil fuel exports
02:43when they remain critical to the Australian economy. That has stirred real frustration among some Pacific leaders like Ralph Reganvanu
02:50from Vanuatu who said Australia had a moral responsibility to do more.
02:55Anthony Albanese, though, points to Australia's investments in the Pacific in the renewable energy space, visiting this morning a solar
03:02farm and battery plant that's been funded by Australia,
03:05and saying that Australia does take the issue of climate change seriously.
03:10This makes an enormous difference. And we know when we talk to our Pacific friends, always, the first, second and
03:20third priorities are climate change, climate change and climate change.
03:24For the people of the Pacific, this isn't an academic exercise. This is something that is real, is having an
03:34impact, and something that needs response and leadership.
03:39And that is what Australia is providing in partnership with the leaders in the Pacific.
03:45That doesn't mean that the debate over climate change in Australia is going to magically disappear.
03:50Just this afternoon, it became clear that Australia had given approval to another extension to an existing coal mine,
03:57something that Pacific civil society groups say is a total betrayal, and completely undermines any claim Australia can make to
04:06climate leadership.
04:07But when Sir Angle Whips was pressed about Australia's climate record this morning, he gave Canberra something of a leave
04:13pass, saying,
04:14In the end, the responsibility for emissions that come from coal and gas do not rest with the countries that
04:21export those things,
04:22but rather with the countries that are buying them, saying the global transition has to happen as quickly as possible
04:28to ensure that there isn't any appetite for coal and gas.
04:32That will be a relief for Australia, which remains very, very sensitive to any criticism on climate from the Pacific,
04:38particularly in the lead up to pre-Cop.
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