Former Nauru president Baron Waqa — who famously clashed with a Chinese diplomat and accused Beijing of bullying smaller countries — will take the reins of the Pacific's peak regional body next year, after a special Pacific Islands Forum meeting in Fiji.
Prime ministers and presidents from a host of Pacific nations gathered in Nadi on Friday to cement a deal that will see Kiribati formally return to the forum — known as the Suva Agreement — after a prolonged leadership dispute.
Kiribati signed the agreement on Friday night in Nadi — part of a compromise deal which will see the PIF secretary-general position handed to Mr Waqa next year.
Speaking to the ABC on the sidelines of the event, the president of the Federated States of Micronesia David Panuelo said the Pacific family would "never be fractured again".
"We have been extending the olive branch and they [Kiribati] accepted," he said.
Micronesian nations had agreed that Nauru would select the next secretary-general under the pact, and Mr Panuelo confirmed Mr Waqa would take the position from 2024.
"We've considered all the decisions and candidates that members brought in, and we all come in on the full decision," he said.
That decision is likely to stir unease in Beijing, which has been intent on establishing its own regional mechanisms to broaden security and economic ties with the region.
Nauru is one of the four Pacific Island nations which recognise Taiwan rather than China.
A colourful history When Mr Waqa was Nauru's president and the forum chair in 2018 he had a spectacular confrontation with the head of China's delegation, Du Qiwen, who stormed out of the meeting after being stopped from speaking.
Mr Waqa later accused the Chinese diplomat of trying to speak over Pacific leaders.
"He disrespected the Pacific, the forum island leaders and other ministers who have come to join us in our territory. Are you kidding? Look at him, he's a nobody," he said at the time.
"He's not even a minister and he's demanding to be recognised and to speak before the prime minister of Tuvalu. Is he crazy?"
Mr Waqa even threatened to take the matter to the United Nations, saying that China was trying to bully and "dictate" to countries in the Pacific.
He created more headlines at the same meeting when he serenaded New Zealand's then-prime minister Jacinda Ardern with a song.
The former Nauru president has also been enveloped in multiple controversies surrounding Australia's deeply contentious offshore detention processing facility on the island.
Activists also accused Mr Waqa's government of undermining media freedoms and basic civil liberties in Nauru in the wake of the trial of the so-called Nauru 19 protest group.
'Please don't disrupt it again' The meeting came against a backdrop of intensifying competition between the United States and China in the Pacific.
Both great powers have recently appointed special envoys for the region, while Micronesian leaders earlier this month flagged a likely visit to the region by US President Joe Biden.
Pacific leaders also discussed building stronger ties with Washington, potentially by establishing a new "Special Envoy" office in the US, which would give the Forum Secretariat better access to both the US government and the United Nations in New York.
Fiji's Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka — who was instrumental in bringing Kiribati back into the organisation after travelling to the country in June to meet President Taneti Maamau — said he gave a clear message to fellow Pacific leaders during the meeting.
"Now we're back together, please don't disrupt it again," he said.
The next PIF leaders meeting will be held later this year in Cook Islands.
By: Foreign Affairs Reporter Stephen Dziedzic and Lice Movono
Original article link: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-24/pacific-islands-forum-elects-new-leader/102019112
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