Tuvalu’s Taiwan ties in the balance as Pacific nation gets new prime minister
- The issue of diplomatic recognition is up for debate in the island nation, which is one of only three remaining Pacific allies of Taiwan
- A defence deal with Australia could also be up for review. Tuvalu’s new prime minister, Feleti Teo, has not made his position on the subjects public
Teo secured the support of lawmakers who were elected last month and was declared prime minister by the governor general, government secretary Tufoua Panapa said in an emailed statement. Teo, who was educated in New Zealand and Australia, was Tuvalu’s first attorney general. He has decades of experience as a senior official in the regional fisheries organisation and has worked with the Pacific Islands Forum, the region’s major political and economic group. Fishing is a major source of revenue in the Pacific islands.
Tuvalu lawmaker Simon Kofe congratulated Teo in a social media post. “It is the first time in our history that a prime minister has been nominated unopposed,” he said.
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Taiwan’s foreign ministry said its ambassador to Tuvalu, Andrew Lin, expressed Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen’s congratulations to Teo, adding that deputy foreign minister Tien Chung-kwang will visit Tuvalu in the near future.
Taiwan previously said it was paying close attention to the election after Tuvalu’s finance minister in the previous government, Seve Paeniu, said the issue of diplomatic recognition of Taiwan or China should be debated by the new government.
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The deal was seen as an effort to curb China’s rising influence as an infrastructure provider in the Pacific.
Teo’s position on Taiwan ties, and the Australian security and migration pact, have not been made public.
Jess Marinaccio, an assistant professor in Pacific studies at California State University, said it was too early to say whether Teo would maintain ties with Taiwan.
I don’t think anybody knows, because he hasn’t been in government for a long time
“I don’t think anybody knows, because he hasn’t been in government for a long time,” Marinaccio said. “The positions he has worked in were ones where he had to deal with countries which did and didn’t have relations with Taiwan, so he has probably had to be fairly even about that … He couldn’t express an opinion either way, so we don’t have an idea whether he leans one way or the other.”
Marinaccio said international relations would be high on the list of issues for Teo’s new government.
“It will definitely be something they talk about. They also have to choose high commissioners and ambassadors, so Taiwan will be in there,” she said.
“It will be a high priority, along with climate change and telecommunications, because the coverage in Tuvalu is not fantastic.”
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Taiwan’s ambassador to Tuvalu said on Monday that he had won assurances from the country’s new prime minister that ties are “rock solid, durable and everlasting”.
“I was invited to attend a lunch with all the MPs and the newly elected PM. I had conversations with all of them and had assurances from all of them,” ambassador Lin said.
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on social media he looked forward to working with Teo.
“Australia deeply values our relationship with Tuvalu, in the spirit of the Falepili Union,” he wrote, referring to the migration pact.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse
