Pacific leaders are struggling to focus on climate at the all-important summit

US-China rivalry and disagreements over regional leadership threatened to overshadow a landmark summit of island leaders that began Tuesday in the Fijian capital Suva.

This year’s Pacific Islands Forum is the most important gathering in years, coming after a Covid-enforced hiatus and low-lying tropical islands running out of time for climate action.

But rather than just focusing on the threat of rising sea levels and intensifying storms, China’s attempt to play a larger regional security role seems to dominate the agenda.

The Solomon Islands signed a highly controversial security deal with China in April that upended decades-old alliances with the West.

And on the eve of the summit, Beijing-aligned leaders in the tiny nation of Kiribati announced the country would renounce membership of the forum altogether, shattering a region that values ​​unity and consensus.

The remaining leaders, gathered at Suva’s luxurious Grand Pacific Hotel, are expected to discuss a strategy to lead the Pacific to 2050, with a focus on the existential threat posed by climate change.

But Fiji President and Pacific Islands Forum chair Voreqe Bainimarama used his opening remarks to acknowledge the “breakdown in our ties” with the Micronesian nations, of which Kiribati is a part, that has been occurring in recent years.

It had been hoped that a carefully negotiated deal with Micronesia would be enough to heal a schism created when the region’s chosen candidate to chair the forum was snubbed.

But Kiribati’s exit sparked concerns that the Pacific’s tightly knit entity could fracture, giving the small island nation region weight in global climate talks.

Tuvaluan Foreign Minister Simon Kofe told AFP he was “surprised and saddened” by Kiribati’s departure, but he was optimistic the nation could be lured into rejoining.

Last year, Kofe made headlines when he stood knee-deep in water ahead of the COP summit to draw attention to the threat climate change poses to his low-lying nation, which could disappear beneath rising sea levels in the next 50 years.

In the face of such a threat, his top priorities at the summit are climate, although he said he understands “how some members want to discuss the security issues”.

Concerns about regional security — brought to the fore by the Solomon Islands-China pact — “steer a bit of attention away from climate change,” Kofe said.

The summit will be an important opportunity for Australia’s newly-elected Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to mend ties with the Pacific, which have soured under the previous Conservative government.

Albanese, who will arrive in Suva on Wednesday, tried to link the issues of climate and security on Tuesday before leaving for the summit.

“Our Pacific neighbors understand that climate change is a national security issue,” he said at a news conference in Sydney.