Pacific bloc backs joint police plan, maintains Taiwan ties

This handout photo taken and released on Aug. 26, 2024 by the European Commission shows flags of the Pacific Islands Forum member nations outside the convention centre during the Pacific Islands Forum meeting in Nuku'alofa.

Pacific leaders wrapped up a key summit in Tonga on Friday, endorsing a major joint policing initiative and rebuffing moves from China's regional allies to sideline long-term partner Taiwan.

Leaders trickled back to the capital Nuku'alofa after an overnight island retreat, using the tranquil surroundings to try to chart a course through increasingly choppy waters.

Security was a focal point at this year's Pacific Islands Forum, an unwieldy bloc of U.S. partners, China friends, and states still tied to Taiwan.

U.S. ally Australia convinced its Pacific neighbors to back a landmark plan giving it a greater role in training the region's police.

The scheme would create up to four regional police training centers and a multinational crisis reaction force, backed by $271 million in initial funding from Australia.

Although hailed as a "godsend" by nations such as Fiji, others closer to Beijing were cooler on the idea.

"The only thing that we do not agree to is that it imposes conditions on our own domestic security," Solomon Islands Foreign Minister Peter Agovaka told AFP on Friday.

Taiwan stays 

Critics suggested the deal was less about police and more about carving up the region to keep China on the margins.

Such concerns were fanned when Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was caught joking with a top U.S. diplomat about going "halfsies" on the cost.

The forum's final declaration endorsed the policing plan but noted some may need to first conduct...