Caption: Jeremiah Manele, prime minister of the Solomon Islands, opens the annual Pacific Islands Forum in Honiara on Monday. Photo credit: Ma Ping / Xinhua via Alamy Excerpt from ft.com
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Pacific island leaders gathering in the Solomon Islands this week have adopted a novel strategy to prevent US-China tensions from overshadowing the region’s most important annual summit: inviting neither.
The Pacific Islands Forum — which brings together 18 countries ranging from tiny island nations Tuvalu and Niue to regional heavyweights Australia and New Zealand — has been dominated in recent years by an escalating competition for influence between China and western allies.
Pacific island countries have also been riven over recognition of Taiwan, over which Beijing claims sovereignty. Three of Taiwan’s 12 diplomatic allies — Palau, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands — are in the Pacific, and Taipei is one of about 20 external partners to the PIF, sending representatives to its annual summits alongside countries such as the US, China and Japan.