Fiji’s defense minister said today that climate change posed the greatest security threat in the Asia-Pacific region, in a different approach to defense forums dominated by the war in Ukraine and the China-US conflict.
The low-lying Pacific islands, including Fiji, Tonga and Samoa, are some of the countries most at risk from extreme weather events caused by climate change.
In recent years, the islands of Fiji have been hit by a series of tropical cyclones, which have caused catastrophic floods, forced thousands of people to flee their homes and hit the country’s economy.
In the Pacific region, machine guns, fighter jets and warships are not the main security concerns, Fiji Defense Minister Inia Serouiratou told the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s largest security forum. hosted in Singapore.
“The biggest threat to our very existence is climate change. It threatens our hopes and our dreams of prosperity,” he said.
The forum, which concludes today, was dominated by discussions on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and growing tensions between the United States and China in a range of areas, from Taiwan sovereignty to Pacific naval bases.
Serouiratou himself downplayed concerns about a battle for influence in the Pacific Islands, while stressing Fiji’s willingness to work with a number of countries.
“In Fiji, we are not threatened by geopolitical competition,” Serouiratou said in a speech. “We have to adapt how we work and who we work with in order to achieve stability.”
Source: Capital
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