Australia’s Prime Minister, Scott Morrison on Thursday said Australia will offer Pacific countries up to A$3 billion ($2.18 billion) in grants and cheap loans to build infrastructure as Canberra seeks to counter China’s rising influence in the region.
Australia and China have been vying for influence in sparsely populated Pacific island countries that control vast swathes of resource-rich oceans.
China has spent $1.3 billion on concessional loans and gifts since 2011 to become the Pacific’s second-largest donor after Australia, stoking concern in the West that several tiny nations could end up overburdened and in debt to Beijing.
Announcing the new pacific initiative, Morrison said;
“The government I have the privilege to lead, is returning the Pacific to where it should be; front and center”
“This is our patch. This is our part of the world.”
Australia will create a A$2 billion infrastructure fund that will invest in telecommunications, energy, transport, water projects.
Australia will also give an additional A$1 billion to its financing arm, which offers loans to private companies unable to secure funds from traditional lenders, to invest in the Pacific.
Morrison said Australia would also expand its diplomatic presence in the Pacific, posting staff to Palau, the Marshall Islands, French Polynesia, Niue and the Cook Islands.
Australia said it will also strengthen defense and security ties with Pacific islands through new joint exercises and training.
“Australia is reacting to what China is doing. Australia needs more tools to engage with the Pacific,” said Jonathan Pryke, a Pacific Islands foreign policy expert with the Lowy Institute, an Australian think-tank.
Ties between Australia and China, its largest trading partner, have been strained since Australia accused China of meddling in its domestic affairs late last year.
