Diplomatic Briefing
Your exclusive news aggregator handpicked daily!Archive for Australia/Oceania
Newsline: Australia’s top diplomat backs Palestinian UN membership
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Saturday the country’s support for a Palestinian bid to become a full United Nations member was part of building momentum to secure peace in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. Australia voted on Friday with the overwhelming majority of the U.N. General Assembly in backing the resolution that would effectively recognise a Palestinian state. It recommended the Security Council “reconsider the matter favorably”. The United States had vetoed a recommendation that “the State of Palestine be admitted to membership” in a Security Council vote last month. The question of Palestinian membership is one of the few diplomatic issues where close allies Washington and Canberra differ. “Much of our region and many of our partners also voted yes,” Wong told a press conference in Adelaide. “We all know one vote on its own won’t end this conflict – it has spanned our entire lifetimes – but we all have to do what we can to build momentum towards peace.” (https://neuters.de/world/australia-says-palestinian-un-membership-bid-builds-peace-momentum-2024-05-11/) Friday’s General Assembly vote – 143 in favour, nine including the U.S. and Israel against, and 25 abstaining – was a global survey of support for the Palestinian bid. The Palestinians are a non-member observer state.
Newsline: China’s diplomats eye launching maritime talks with Australia
China is considering launching talks on maritime affairs with Australia, a foreign ministry spokesperson said on Thursday, as increased tension among several nations bordering the South China Sea threatens regional security. Maritime issues have been a hot-button topic between China and Australia amid growing confrontations in the vital economic waterway that China claims almost in its entirety, despite overlapping claims by many Southeast Asian nations. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is on the final day of a visit to Australia, during which he has met his counterpart and other leaders to discuss trade issues and differences over regional security. “Both sides agreed to restore and establish dialogue in various fields,” said Lin Jian, the spokesperson, in response to a query on the visit, adding that both are also considering launching talks on maritime issues. (https://neuters.de/world/asia-pacific/china-considers-launching-maritime-talks-with-australia-2024-03-21/) Other areas in which both will look to promote co-operation include diplomacy, trade, technology, education and law enforcement, he added. Australia is very concerned about unsafe and destabilising behaviour in the South China Sea, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said, amid clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels in disputed waters.
Newsline: China’s top diplomat to talk wine tariffs in Australia
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Saturday the removal of Chinese tariffs on Australian wine would be on the agenda when he meets China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi next week in Canberra. Wang, China’s top diplomat, is set to visit Australia and New Zealand from March 17 to 21. The trip comes as China moves ahead with a review of tariffs first imposed on Australian wine during a diplomatic spat in 2020. “We will host the Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Canberra in the coming week, and I look forward to having further discussion with the foreign minister,” Albanese said in comments televised by the Australian Broadcasting Corp from Adelaide, capital of South Australia, a major wine producing state. Albanese said he expected a decision from China in coming weeks that would open back up the wine market, describing it as “win-win” for both countries. “Dialogue leads to understanding and it leads to benefit for both of our nations. Australia will benefit from the economic activity that removal of these impediments will bring,” he said. (https://neuters.de/world/asia-pacific/australia-pm-talk-wine-tariffs-with-china-foreign-minister-canberra-2024-03-16/) China said this month its review of tariffs on Australian wine was progressing well, but stopped short of confirming an Australian government claim the dispute would be resolved by the end of March.
Newsline: Papua New Guinean top diplomat pledges talks with China on security cooperation
Papua New Guinea is in early talks with China on a potential security and policing deal, Foreign Minister Justin Tkachenko told Reuters, weeks after deadly riots in the South Pacific nation’s capital. Amid jostling between Washington and Beijing for influence in the Pacific, the biggest Pacific Islands nation, Papua New Guinea (PNG), has previously said Australia and the United States were its security partners, while China was an important economic partner. China approached PNG in September with an offer to assist its police force with training, equipment and surveillance technology, Tkachenko said in an interview with Reuters on Monday. Talks continued last week. “We deal with China at this stage only at economic and trade level. They are one of our biggest trading partners, but they have offered to assist our policing and security on the internal security side,” Tkachenko said. PNG will assess if the Chinese offer duplicates security and policing assistance already being offered by Australia and the United States, he said. “It is still in early stages of negotiation with our Commissioner of Police and our Minister of Internal Security,” he said. “They have offered it to us, but we have not accepted it at this point in time.” (https://neuters.de/world/asia-pacific/china-papua-new-guinea-talks-policing-security-cooperation-minister-2024-01-29/) China’s foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular press briefing in Beijing that Papua New Guinea was “China’s good friend and good partner” in the Pacific Islands, and they had cooperated in various fields, including police cooperation, for a long time.
Newsline: Israel pays for Papua New Guinea’s embassy in Jerusalem
Papua New Guinea opened its embassy to Israel in Jerusalem on Tuesday, becoming only the fifth country with a full diplomatic mission in a city whose status is one of the most sensitive issues in the Middle East. Israel will pay for the embassy, located in a high-rise opposite Jerusalem’s biggest mall, for the first two years, Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape was quoted in the Papua New Guinea Post-Courier newspaper. (https://neuters.de/world/middle-east/papua-new-guinea-opens-embassy-jerusalem-2023-09-05/) The Pacific nation’s mission joins embassies from the United States, Kosovo, Guatemala and Honduras in Jerusalem, while most countries maintain their diplomatic representation in the coastal city of Tel Aviv, Israel’s main economic hub. While Israel considers Jerusalem its eternal and indivisible capital and wants all embassies based there, most of the world does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over the entire city, believing its status should be resolved in negotiations.
Newsline: Australia’s top diplomat announces mission to Beijing for dialogue
An Australian industry, government, academic and media delegation will travel to Beijing for dialogue with Chinese counterparts on Thursday, another step in stabilising ties, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Saturday. “This is first time the Dialogue has been held since early 2020 and it represents another step towards increasing bilateral engagement and stabilising our relationship with China,” Wong’s statement said. Trade, investment, regional and international security will be discussed, the statement said. (https://neuters.de/world/asia-pacific/australian-delegation-heading-beijing-dialogue-government-says-2023-09-02/) The high-level meetings, which do not include government ministers, had been held annually since 2014 as a platform to discuss issues of concern, but stopped after 2020. Australia’s former Labor trade minister Craig Emerson will head the Australian delegation, which will include former Liberal foreign minister Julie Bishop, to show bipartisan political support, a statement from Wong’s office said. China’s former foreign affairs minister, Li Zhaoxing, will lead the Chinese delegation. Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Secretary Jan Adams, who attended the last dialogue in Beijing as Australia’s ambassador to China, will also be in the delegation. Diplomatic exchanges between the two major trading partners froze in 2020 as China placed curbs on a dozen Australian exports in response to Australia’s call for an investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Newsline: Papua New Guinea to open embassy in Jerusalem next week
Papua New Guinea (PNG) will open an embassy in Jerusalem next week during a visit by Prime Minister James Marape, according to a spokesperson for his office. “Yes, that is correct,” the spokesperson told the Reuters news agency when asked whether the country was set to open the embassy and if Marape planned to visit Israel next week. (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/28/papua-new-guinea-to-open-israel-embassy-in-jerusalem) Papua New Guinea established diplomatic ties with Israel in 1978 and currently maintains a consulate near Tel Aviv, while Israel handles its relations with PNG through its embassy in Australia. Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in February that PNG would open its first embassy in the country sometime in 2023. Citing unnamed sources, Israel’s Channel 14 earlier reported the inauguration of the embassy would take place on September 5. The Times of Israel cited an unnamed Israeli official saying the “details are not mistaken”. Most countries with an official diplomatic presence in Israel maintain embassies in Tel Aviv. The United States moved its embassy to the city in May 2018 a few months after then-President Donald Trump announced the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Kosovo, Guatemala and Honduras also operate from Jerusalem.
Newsline: East Timor condemns Myanmar’s expulsion of diplomat
Myanmar’s military government has ordered East Timor’s top diplomat to leave the country, the government of East Timor said in a statement condemning the rare action. East Timor “reiterates the importance of supporting all efforts for the return of democratic order in Myanmar and expresses its solidarity with the people of Myanmar, while urging the Military Junta to respect human rights and seek a peaceful and constructive solution to the crisis,” its government said late on Saturday. (https://neuters.de/world/asia-pacific/east-timor-condemns-myanmars-expulsion-top-diplomat-2023-08-27/) East Timor politicians have been outspoken critics of Myanmar’s military government and President Jose Ramos-Horta has met with a top representative from Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG), which opposes military rule. The country’s charge d’affaires must leave Myanmar by Sept. 1, NUG human rights minister Aung Myo Min said on Facebook. Myanmar’s government, which assumed power in a coup in 2021, has not made any announcement on the matter and a spokesperson was not immediately available for comment. In protest against the 2021 coup, many countries have charges d’affaires in Myanmar instead of ambassadors. Still, the ruling Myanmar military rarely expels or refuses diplomats.
Newsline: U.S. ambassador to Australia seen redefining diplomacy
Ms. Kennedy’s recent swim in the Pacific waters where J.F.K. survived a wartime ordeal shows how her family legacy informs her work. On a drizzly August morning, Caroline Kennedy waded into the turquoise waters between two deserted islands in the South Pacific, trying not to scratch her feet on sprouts of coral. “Look how beautiful this is,” she said. “Your father did this swim,” said her son, Jack Schlossberg. (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/21/world/australia/caroline-kennedy-solomon-islands.html) Ms. Kennedy and Mr. Schlossberg followed through on a promise from J.F.K. to visit the Solomon Islands again after his rescue. Together they stood in the Western Province of the Solomon Islands, facing a mile-long jaunt to an islet called Olasana — a place John F. Kennedy, Caroline’s father, landed almost exactly 80 years earlier as a junior Navy officer. He crossed the same waters to save himself and 10 members of his crew after a Japanese destroyer split their torpedo boat, PT-109, in the predawn darkness of Aug. 2, 1943. Ms. Kennedy knew her swim offered just a glimpse of that ordeal. She was there on a short official visit as the U.S. ambassador to Australia. J.F.K. had survived for nearly a week, swimming many miles between three islands with the enemy all around, dragging an injured comrade to land and, eventually, being rescued thanks to a message he carved on a coconut and the bravery of Solomon Islanders and Australians who helped them reach an allied base. The swim was her idea, and it fit a more recent pattern. She didn’t want to simply speak from behind a podium. She wanted to feel and touch the place, to commune with the struggles made distant by time. Half a world away from the United States — where another Kennedy, her cousin Robert, is running for president, tying that famous name to a long-shot campaign fueled by conspiracies about Covid-19 — Ms. Kennedy has been trying to activate her family’s legacy for diplomacy.
Newsline: China’s embassy dismisses accusations of intelligence activity in New Zealand
The Chinese embassy in Wellington said it was “strongly dissatisfied with and firmly opposed” to the China-related content in the report, claiming the Chinese government was conducting “normal” exchanges with overseas Chinese citizens in accordance with international law. China hopes relevant countries can create an open, inclusive and non-discriminatory environment for Chinese citizens overseas and local Chinese, the embassy said in a statement. (https://neuters.de/world/asia-pacific/nz-intelligence-aware-ongoing-activity-linked-china-intelligence-services-2023-08-10/) New Zealand said on Friday it is aware of intelligence activity linked to China in and against the island nation and the Pacific region. “This is a complex intelligence concern for New Zealand,” the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS) said in its annual report. The accusations levelled against China are the latest in a string of recent comments from the New Zealand government outlining concerns about China’s assertive behaviour and its destabilising impact. New Zealand, part of the Five Eyes intelligence and security alliance that includes Australia, Britain, Canada and the United States, has historically taken a more conciliatory approach towards China, its biggest trading partner, but in recent months has more often raised concerns publicly about the country’s actions.
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