Tag: Tuvalu

Landmark Australia, Tuvalu climate and security pact to go ahead

SYDNEY, March 27, 2024 (AFP) – Australia and Tuvalu are pressing ahead with a landmark treaty offering the Pacific Island’s citizens a climate refuge, quieting speculation about the fate of the pact. The 11-page treaty was tabled to the Australian parliament late Tuesday — offering Tuvalu residents the right to live in Australia if their homeland is lost to rising sea levels. The pact also commits Australia to defending Tuvalu in the face of natural […]

New Tuvalu PM says focused on development, not Taiwan ties

FUNAFUTI, Tuvalu, Feb 29, 2024 (AFP) – Tuvalu’s new Prime Minister Feleti Teo says his government is focused on the “many key development priorities” facing his Pacific Island nation, not debates about Taiwan relations that have consumed outsiders. The government will “concentrate working on the key priorities of Tuvalu” he told a small group of media outlets, including AFP, on Wednesday. “Unless there are any major issues in that relationship”, he said it would not […]

New Tuvalu government reaffirms relations with Taiwan

FUNAFUTI, Tuvalu, Feb 28, 2024 (AFP) – Tuvalu’s new government on Wednesday vowed to keep up its “special” relationship with Taiwan, ending speculation that the Pacific island nation was poised to switch diplomatic recognition to Beijing. “The new government wishes to reaffirm its commitment to the long-term and lasting special relationship between Tuvalu and the Republic of China, Taiwan,” Prime Minister Feleti Teo’s government said in a statement of priorities. Tuvalu, with a population of […]

Taiwan douses speculation it may lose another Pacific ally

SYDNEY, Jan 23, 2024 (AFP) – Taiwanese diplomats on Tuesday said they were confident of retaining “a strong bond” with key partner Tuvalu as speculation mounted that the Pacific micronation could soon switch its allegiance to Beijing. The dwindling list of countries that officially recognize Taiwan shrunk earlier this month when Nauru abruptly severed diplomatic ties in favor of Beijing. With Tuvalu heading to the polls on Friday, some Pacific watchers have questioned whether Beijing […]

Australia offers refuge to Tuvaluans facing climate displacement

By Steven TRASK SYDNEY, Nov 10, 2023 (AFP) – Citizens of climate-threatened Tuvalu will have the right to live in Australia under a landmark pact unveiled Friday — an offer of refuge as their Pacific homeland is lost beneath the seas. Prime ministers Kausea Natano and Anthony Albanese inked a treaty to help Tuvalu’s 11,000 residents tackle climate change, and to take up sanctuary should the worst fears materialise. Tuvalu is among the world’s most […]

Tuvalu will always be a state, even if underwater, says PM

By Issam AHMED Tuvalu could be one of the first nations to sink beneath the sea as a result of climate change, but that doesn’t mean its statehood is up for discussion, the tiny Pacific archipelago’s prime minister said Thursday. Speaking on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Kausea Natano said there had been “unnecessary” conversations in academic and diplomatic circles centered on the definition of a country under international law. “Our sovereignty is […]

Defying virus, Latvian ocean rower plans next adventure

by Imants LIEPINSH Agence France-Presse RIGA, Latvia (AFP) — After spending 140 days rowing across the ocean without seeing another human being, Latvian adventurer Karlis Bardelis has some valuable tips for those learning to cope with coronavirus lockdowns. Bardelis started his nearly two-year journey in Peru in July 2018, reaching French Polynesia after nearly five months and finishing in Malaysia in June of this year. Along the way, he was rammed by sharks off Papua […]

‘Sinking’ Pacific nation is getting bigger: study

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) — The Pacific nation of Tuvalu — long seen as a prime candidate to disappear as climate change forces up sea levels — is actually growing in size, new research shows. A University of Auckland study examined changes in the geography of Tuvalu’s nine atolls and 101 reef islands between 1971 and 2014, using aerial photographs and satellite imagery. It found eight of the atolls and almost three-quarters of the islands […]