Andrew Shearer, a senior Australian intelligence chief has said that a landmark climate and security deal with Tuvalu may be at risk in the wake of the Pacific nation’s election.
Shearer, who leads the government’s Office of National Intelligence (ONI), was quoted as saying that his agency was “obviously aware of recent political change and turbulence in Tuvalu”.
However, he cautioned that he could not yet predict the fate of the deal because ONI was not part of the negotiations between the two countries.
The treaty, which was signed in November, offered “a special human mobility pathway for citizens of Tuvalu” to live, study and work in Australia as part of recognition that the low-lying Pacific country was particularly vulnerable to sea level rise.
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Just as significantly, the treaty promises that Australia will defend Tuvalu in the case of any military aggression or other significant threats.
In return for this security guarantee, Tuvalu must “mutually agree with Australia” if it wants to strike a deal with any other country on security and defence-related matters.
This measure was widely been seen as an effective Australian veto on a potential future security agreement with China. Tuvalu currently is one of the few nations to maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan, not Beijing.
But at a Senate estimates hearing on Monday night, the Greens senator David Shoebridge noted that the prime minister who signed the deal with Australia, Kausea Natano, had lost his seat in elections held late last month.
There are no political parties in Tuvalu’s parliament, where two lawmakers are elected in each of eight island electorates, and the formation of the new government may take some time.
Shoebridge asked Shearer whether it was his assessment that the agreement with Tuvalu “faces a real risk of unravelling now”.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
