CANBERRA: Australia and New Zealand are set to seal a new security agreement with their Pacific island neighbours as China increases its influence in the region, officials said on Friday.

The agreement was expected to be signed at the 18-nation Pacific Islands Forum in September, New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said, describing the Pacific as an “increasingly contested strategic environment.”

New Zealand’s government said that China was acting more confidently and assertively in pursuing its interests in Asia, which had raised tensions with other countries including the United States.

As China had integrated into the international order, it had not adopted the same values around human rights and freedom of information that are championed by traditional leaders, a strategic defence policy statement released by New Zealand Defence Minister Ron Mark said.

The paper said that China was modernising its military and growing its capabilities in a reflection of the nation’s economic might and growing leadership ambitions. It said that New Zealand faced “compounding challenges of a scope and magnitude not previously seen in our neighbourhood.” “The circumstances that some of our Pacific island nations find themselves in create opportunities for other players to take advantage,” Mark told reporters, adding that accepting foreign loans could carry other obligations. Mark declined to comment on the scale of threat posed by China.

Australian Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said the new pact was a continuation of a security agreement accepted by forum nation leaders in 2000. The Biketawa Declaration created a framework for collective responses to regional crises, such as the Australia-led multinational security force that was sent to the Solomon Islands in 2003 to end civil unrest. The mission only ended last year.

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2018