‘No need for concern’: Tongan PM plays down Chinese security assistance

Tonga’s decision to accept China’s offer of security support to host the Pacific Islands Forum leaders meeting later this year has raised concerns in the United States and its allies.

A delegation from China’s Ministry of Public Security arrived in Tonga last week as Washington accused Beijing of “policy pushing” in the Pacific region.

The Chinese contingent will provide “police assistance” to the Tongans ahead of the leaders summit in Nuku’alofa in August, Tonga’s government said.

Tonga's Police Commissioner Shane McLennan. (File photo.) Photo: Tonga Police

Home to about 108,000 people, Tonga is located about 2400km from New Zealand. The country was hit with a massive volcanic eruption that killed four people and sent millions of tonnes of water vapour into the atmosphere on 15 January 2022.

The eruption caused tsunamis in Fiji, American Samoa, Vanuatu, Japan, the Russian Far East, Chile, Peru, the US, and Aotearoa.

In February, New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Minister of Pacific Peoples Shane Reti visited Tonga, the Cook Islands and Samoa after tours to Tuvalu and Fiji, including talks with forum secretary-general Henry Puna in Suva.

Peters’ visits came hard on the heels of a tour to Australia that saw a strengthening of security and defence ties between the two key US allies in the Pacific and a coordinated campaign to block Chinese influence among the island states.

While these nations are insignificant economically, they are strategically important due to the large areas that they occupy, he said.

US President Joe Biden said he aimed to keep relations with China stable amid his concerns over Beijing’s activities around Taiwan, the South China Sea and Russia.

In a call with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping last week, Biden raised two issues over “China’s aggression” in the Pacific, a White House summary stated.

The two leaders had a “candid and constructive” conversation, which included unfair trade policies, wrongfully detained US citizens and TikTok.

Australia remains sceptical of China’s motives, with Pacific Minister Pat Conroy warning the island nations that Beijing could use its presence in the region to monitor both Chinese expatriates and local elites while shaping the political and security environment in its favour.

Conroy said China has no role in policing the Pacific, adding that any security assistance could be provided by other members of the Pacific whānau including New Zealand and Australia.

But Tonga’s Prime Minister Hu'akavameiliku Siaosi Sovaleni has welcomed China’s offer of security support, amid fears that authoritarian Chinese policing methods were taking place in the Pacific.

Sovaleni told journalists there was nothing to fear from China’s offer to help Tonga host the forum leaders of the 18-member Pacific Islands Forum.

“There’s no reason to be concerned. China is offering to assist with the hosting of the foreign leaders’ meeting.

“If it’s training and if the (Tonga) police deem it to be necessary, we will take up the offer,” he told local media.

Sovaleni said discussions had centred on China providing police motorcycles and other vehicles to support security for the regional leaders.

Biden and his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese have been working to strengthen ties in the Pacific region since China signed a security deal with the Solomon Islands in early 2022, raising fears of a Chinese naval base in Honiara.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Tonga, New Zealand and Australia last July - his first - after the US opened a Tongan embassy months earlier.

At the same time, Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin arrived in Papua New Guinea, the first time a Pentagon chief had visited the Pacific.

Tonga is one of only three Pacific island nations that has a military, the other two are PNG and Fiji.

Australian officials said the Chinese visit to Tonga last Thursday had reaffirmed Beijing’s intent on embedding officers and training teams in police forces across the Pacific.

Defence Minister Richard Marles said Australia is changing its defence spending targets in the upcoming budget because the government is making the Pacific region its priority.

Addressing a think-tank in Sydney on Friday, Marles said he foreshadows cuts to military projects to stop them “running late and over budget”.

He said “tough but necessary” decisions had to be made ahead of next month’s budget.

“Australia values the most constructive and productive relationship we can have with China. Yet, the way this era of great power contest will unfold is unclear and the outcome of this contest is uncertain.”

Australia’s Department of Defence is set to receive A$11 billion (NZ$12.02b) over the next 10 years for the navy's future surface combatant fleet.