Connect with us

World

New Zealand lobbied French on Solomon Islands-China pact, cables show

Published

on

New Zealand lobbied French on Solomon Islands-China pact, cables show

Taipei, Taiwan – New Zealand lobbied France’s territories in the Pacific to respond to news of a controversial security pact between China and the Solomon Islands that set off alarm in Western capitals, newly released documents reveal.

Within days of a draft version of the security pact leaking online in March 2022, representatives of New Zealand, Australia and France were meeting to discuss the implications for the region, the diplomatic cables obtained by Al Jazeera show.

While the precise nature of the discussions is unclear due to redactions in the documents, the cables suggest Wellington hoped officials in French Polynesia and New Caledonia would take a position on the China-Solomon Island agreement.

New Zealand diplomats in New Caledonia’s capital Noumea noted in their reports to Wellington that neither French Polynesia nor New Caledonia “is likely to take a public position” on the deal.

After a meeting with New Caledonia’s High Commissioner Patrice Faure on March 30, New Zealand officials reported that they had relayed an unspecified “suggestion” to their French counterpart, “noting the need for the first response to be from Pacific leaders and from the [Pacific Islands Forum]”.

Advertisement

“We suggested it would be helpful for Faure…”, the New Zealand diplomats said, referring to suggested action whose details are redacted in the documents.

“Faure undertook to do so, as well as to speak to High Commissioner Sorain, his counterpart in Papeete, with the same aim in mind,” the diplomats said, referring to High Commissioner of French Polynesia Dominique Sorain.

New Zealand officials held three meetings in total with officials from the French overseas territories between March 29 and March 30, the documents show, including discussions with President of French Polynesia Édouard Fritch and Francois Behue, the head of the regional cooperation and external relations department in New Caledonia.

Australia’s then Consul General in New Caledonia, Alison Carrington, joined the Kiwi diplomats in their meetings with Faure and Behue, according to the documents.

Advertisement
nc
[New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade]

“The Pacific Islands Forum serves as the pre-eminent regional organisation for Pacific Leaders to discuss, build consensus, and act on shared challenges. Pacific Islands Forum members have the collective capacity — and a strong commitment — to support each other to meet the broader ambitions for the region’s security, as set out in the Biketawa and Boe Declarations,” a spokeswoman for New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a statement provided after publication.

“For example, New Zealand has a long-term security partnership with Solomon Islands, most recently demonstrated in New Zealand’s participation (with Australia and Fiji) in the Solomon Islands International Assistance Force (SIAF) and the security support we provided to the Solomon Islands’ hosting of the Pacific Games late last year.”

Asked about perceptions that New Caledonia and French Polynesia were reluctant to comment publicly on the China-Solomon Islands security pact, the spokeswoman said “it is not for New Zealand to comment on the perspectives of other countries.”

“However, security and defence issues are competencies of the French state,” she said.

Australia’s foreign ministry, and France’s high commissioners in New Caledonia and French Polynesia, did not respond to Al Jazeera’s requests for comment.

News of the Solomon Islands-China security pact in 2022 prompted alarm in the United States, Australia and New Zealand, which have long regarded Pacific Island nations as their geopolitical back yard.

Advertisement

Western officials have raised concerns that China could use the pact to establish a military foothold in the Solomon Islands – which lie about 2,000km (1,242 miles) from Australia and 3,000km (1,864 miles) from major US military installations on Guam – which both Beijing and Honiara have denied.

Then-New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Arden called the deal “gravely concerning” and warned it could lead to the “militarization” of the Pacific, echoing similar warnings from the US and Australia.

France was comparatively muted in its response to the pact despite the presence of more than half a million French citizens and 2,800 military personnel spread out across the Pacific.

While New Caledonia and French Polynesia have elected legislatures that handle domestic issues, Paris handles the territories’ security and defence.

New Caledonia, home to a French military base, lies less than 1,400km (870 miles) south of Solomon Islands and its native Kanak people share ethnic ties with Solomon Islanders.

Advertisement

Anna Powles, a senior lecturer at the Centre for Defence and Security Studies at Massey University, said the diplomatic cables suggested that Wellington wanted to send a “clear message to Paris that any response needed to be Pacific-led”.

Powles said that neither France nor its overseas territories have been very active at the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), although French President Emmanuel Macron has made the Asia Pacific a central part of his foreign policy strategy since 2018.

France is not a member of the forum but it indirectly has a seat at the table through its overseas territories.

Macron
French President Emmanuel Macron has sought to boost his country’s influence in the Pacific [Ludovic Marin/EPA-EFE]

Macron’s attempts to work more closely with members of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance – made up of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the US – in the region took a hit after a submarine deal with Canberra fell apart in 2021, leading to the formation of the AUKUS security alliance between Australia, the UK and the US, although relations have improved since then.

In December, France hosted the South Pacific Defence Ministers Meeting in Nouméa, joined by Australia, Chile, Fiji, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Tonga, with Japan, the UK and US attending as observers.

France’s bid to expand its influence in the Pacific also comes as pro-independence movements are under way in New Caledonia and French Polynesia, where Paris fears growing Chinese influence.

Advertisement

Macron warned last year about a “new imperialism” in the Pacific in remarks believed to have been aimed at China, although he did not mention Beijing by name.

Cleo Paskal, a non-resident senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the diplomatic cables appeared to show New Zealand trying to skirt around the French bureaucracy.

“I would have thought that if they were taking France seriously…  they could go to the French Embassy in Wellington. It feels at best clumsy and not necessarily with a full understanding of the complexities of France’s relationship with China,” Paskal told Al Jazeera.

Paskal said it was difficult to gauge New Zealand’s intentions as Wellington had at the time been working to improve relations with Beijing, while the Pacific Islands Forum has had little to say about issues involving the Solomon Islands and China.

“Frankly, I don’t know what they’re doing. The PIF never came close to making a statement like this, the only regional leader that made a statement on this was [President] David Panuelo from the Federated States of Micronesia, and he was not given a lot of open backing from across the region at all,” she said.

Advertisement

“New Zealand was trying to normalise relations with China and rallying the PIF to say something. It’s not congruent with things that were publicly known about New Zealand’s position at the time and PIF’s position still.”

World

Minnesota braces for what’s next amid immigration arrests and in the wake of Renee Good shooting

Published

on

Minnesota braces for what’s next amid immigration arrests and in the wake of Renee Good shooting

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Already shaken by the fatal shooting of a woman by an immigration officer, Minnesota’s Twin Cities on Sunday braced for what many expect will be a new normal over the next few weeks as the Department of Homeland Security carries out what it called its largest enforcement operation ever.

Protesters screamed at heavily-armed federal agents and honked car horns, banged on drums and blew whistles in attempts to disrupt their operations in one Minneapolis neighborhood filled with single-family homes.

There was some pushing and several people were hit with chemical spray just before agents banged down the door of one home on Sunday. They later took one man away in handcuffs.

“We’re seeing a lot of immigration enforcement across Minneapolis and across the state, federal agents just swarming around our neighborhoods,” said Jason Chavez, a Minneapolis city councilmember. “They’ve definitely been out here.”

Chavez, the son of Mexican immigrants who represents an area with a growing immigrant population, said he is closely monitoring information from chat groups about where residents are seeing agents operating.

Advertisement

People holding whistles positioned themselves in freezing temperatures on street corners in the neighborhood where 37-year-old Renee Good was shot and killed Wednesday, watching for any signs of federal agents.

Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel.

Advertisement

Follow on
WhatsApp

More than 20,000 people have taken part in a variety of trainings to become “observers” of enforcement activities in Minnesota since the 2024 election, said Luis Argueta, a spokesperson for Unidos MN, a local human rights organization .

“It’s a role that people choose to take on voluntarily, because they choose to look out for their neighbors,” Argueta said.

The protests have been largely peaceful, but the Twin Cities remained anxious. Minneapolis public schools on Monday will start offering remote learning for the next month in response to concerns that children might feel unsafe venturing out while tensions remain high.

Advertisement

Many schools closed last week after Good’s shooting and the upheaval that followed.

While the enforcement activity continues, two of the state’s leading Democrats said on Sunday that the investigation into Good’s shooting death shouldn’t be overseen solely by the federal government.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and U.S. Sen. Tina Smith said in separate interviews Sunday that state authorities should be included in the investigation because the federal government has already made clear what it believes happened.

“How can we trust the federal government to do an objective, unbiased investigation, without prejudice, when at the beginning of that investigation they have already announced exactly what they saw — what they think happened,” Smith said on ABC’s “This Week.”

The Trump administration has defended the officer who shot Good in her car, saying he was protecting himself and fellow agents and that Good had “weaponized” her vehicle.

Advertisement

Todd Lyons, acting director of ICE, defended the officer on Fox News Channel’s “The Sunday Briefing.”

“That law enforcement officer had milliseconds, if not short time to make a decision to save his life and his other fellow agents,” he said.

Lyons also said the administration’s enforcement operations in Minnesota wouldn’t be needed “if local jurisdictions worked with us to turn over these criminally illegal aliens once they are already considered a public safety threat by the locals.”

The killing of Good by an ICE officer and the shooting of two people by federal agents in Portland, Oregon, led to dozens of protests across the country over the weekend.

Thousands of people marched Saturday in Minneapolis, where Homeland Security called its deployment of immigration officers in the Twin Cities its biggest ever immigration enforcement operation.

Advertisement

___

Associated Press journalists Giovanna Dell’Orto in Minneapolis, Thomas Strong in Washington, Bill Barrow in Atlanta, and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

World

Netanyahu and Rubio discuss US military intervention in Iran amid ongoing nationwide protests: report

Published

on

Netanyahu and Rubio discuss US military intervention in Iran amid ongoing nationwide protests: report

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed the possibility of U.S. intervention in Iran, according to a report.

The two leaders spoke by phone Saturday as Israel is on “high alert,” preparing for the possibility of U.S. military intervention in Iran, according to Reuters, citing multiple Israeli sources. A U.S. official confirmed the call to Fox News Digital but did not provide additional details.

The report comes as nationwide anti-regime demonstrations across Iran hit the two-week mark.

On Saturday, the Iranian regime triggered an internet “kill switch” in an apparent effort to conceal alleged abuses by security forces and as protests against it surged nationwide, according to a cybersecurity expert. The blackout reduced internet access to a fraction of normal levels.

Advertisement

KEANE WARNS IRANIAN REGIME TO TAKE TRUMP ‘DEAD SERIOUS’ ON PROTEST KILLING THREAT AMID ONGOING DEMONSTRATIONS

Secretary of State Marco Rubio holds his end-of-year press conference at the State Department in Washington, D.C., Dec. 19, 2025. (Kevin Mohatt/Reuters)

On Sunday, Iran’s parliament speaker warned that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America strikes the Islamic Republic.

Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf issued the threat as lawmakers rushed the dais in the Iranian parliament, shouting, “Death to America!” according to The Associated Press.

President Donald Trump offered support for the protesters on Saturday, writing on Truth Social that “Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before. The USA stands ready to help!!!”

Advertisement

IRANIAN MILITARY LEADER THREATENS PREEMPTIVE ATTACK AFTER TRUMP COMMENTS

In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran’s Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)

At a news conference Friday, Trump said Iran was facing mounting pressure as unrest spreads across the country.

“Iran’s in big trouble,” he said. “It looks to me that the people are taking over certain cities that nobody thought were really possible just a few weeks ago. We’re watching the situation very carefully.”

The president said the U.S. would respond forcefully if the regime resorts to mass violence. 

Advertisement

“We’ll be hitting them very hard where it hurts. And that doesn’t mean boots on the ground, but it means hitting them very, very hard where it hurts,” he said.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Protests in Iran intensify for the 12th day. (The National Council of Resistance of Iran)

Fox News Digital reached out to the State Department and White House for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Emma Bussey, Brie Stimson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Advertisement

Continue Reading

World

Four killed, 20 injured in overnight Russian strikes across Ukraine

Published

on

Four killed, 20 injured in overnight Russian strikes across Ukraine

Published on

Russia fired more than 150 drones overnight into Sunday targeting close to two dozen locations across Ukraine, killing at least four people and injuring 20 more.

Ukraine’s Air Forces say they intercepted 125 drones aerially but confirmed that at least 25 strike drones struck their targets.

They added that Moscow’s latest barrage mainly targeted Kharkiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk, all of which were targeted in Saturday’s overnight strikes as well.

Advertisement

Local officials in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia say the strikes targeted residential areas and energy infrastructure. More than 385,000 homes were affected by electric, gas or water outages, at a critical time as temperatures plunged to 10 degrees below Celsius.

Regional lawmakers say service was restored to most of the affected households and areas by Sunday morning, but added that emergency work was still being carried out to restore power to the remaining homes.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of timing their attacks with the cold peaks of winter as to maximise civilian suffering.

“They struck targets that have no military purpose whatsoever – energy infrastructure, residential buildings. They deliberately waited for freezing weather to make things worse for our people. This is deliberate, cynical Russian terror specifically against civilians,” wrote Zelenskyy in a post on X.

He also noted that this week had seen heightened Russian assault on Ukrainian cities, announcing that his country’s defence forces recorded thousands of attacks using a variety of different weapons.

Advertisement

“Over the course of this week, Russia launched almost 1,100 attack drones against Ukraine, more than 890 guided aerial bombs, and over 50 missiles of various types – ballistic, cruise, and even the Oreshnik medium-range ballistic missile.”

The Ukrainian leader thanked all units responsible for protecting the country and responding to attacks, and praised their tireless efforts and resilience.

He also called on allies to ensure his embattled country maintains “stable support”, in defence and diplomatic fields as coordinated dialogue efforts continue in search of peace.

Meanwhile, Russia says that one person was killed in Ukrainian strikes on the western city of Voronezh. Officials say a young woman succumbed to her wounds at an intensive care unit of a local hospital after debris from a drone fell on her house during Saturday’s attacks.

They added that at least three others were injured in the attacks which targeted more than 10 residential apartment buildings, private homes and a high school.

Advertisement

The city of Voronezh lies just 250 kilometres from the Ukrainian border and is home to approximately one million people. The attacks, which Kyiv have yet to confirm, came after the Kremlin’s major offensive on Ukraine in the early hours of Saturday.

Additional sources • AP

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Trending