Australia concluded an economic and security deal with the Pacific island nation of Nauru on Monday. The adoption of the agreement serves to contain China's growing influence in this region. In return, Nauru will receive a total of nearly $90 billion, Reuters reported.
The Australian government has been given the right to veto Chinese involvement in areas including: banking and telecommunications in Nauru. In return, the island's inhabitants will receive direct budget support in the amount of USD 64 billion over five years and over USD 25 billion to strengthen state security.
Under the new treaty, Nauru must notify and obtain Australia's consent before, for example, Chinese warships use its main port, which was recently modernized by a Chinese state-owned company.
Cooperation with the authorities of islands in the Pacific
This is the second security agreement recently concluded by Australia with the authorities of the Pacific islands – in 2023, a pact was signed with Tuvalu, a country consisting of an archipelago of islands in the Pacific Ocean, located north of Fiji.
In 2019, Tuvalu rejected an offer from Chinese companies that wanted to support the construction of artificial islands to help fight rising sea levels. The island then publicly admitted that it supported Taiwan.
Unlike Nauru, whose authorities announced at the beginning of 2024 that they would no longer recognize Taiwan “as a separate state”, but as part of China. In response, Taiwan severed relations with the island. Taipei then accused Beijing of using “economic aid” to persuade Nauru to make a diplomatic turn.
Canberra's concern about Beijing's ambitions for influence in the Pacific islands increased after the Solomon Islands concluded a security agreement with China in 2022. Relations between China and Kiribati have been warming since 2019. Moreover, in September 2024, China tested an intercontinental ballistic missile with a dummy warhead, which landed in the waters of the Pacific Ocean
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