A joint declaration by Pacific leaders was reissued Saturday morning with mentions of Taiwan removed after China slammed an earlier version as a "mistake" that "must be corrected".
After five days of talks in Tonga, a "cleared" communique was released Friday that reaffirmed a 30-year-old agreement allowing Taiwan to take part in the Pacific Islands Forum.
But the wording immediately raised the ire of Chinese diplomats, who piled pressure on Pacific leaders to amend the document.
The forum reissued the communique without explanation Saturday morning, conspicuously deleting the paragraph concerning the bloc's "relations with Taiwan".
The original paragraph, titled "Relations with Taiwan/Republic of China," said leaders had "reaffirmed" the 1992 decision that paved the way for Taiwan's participation in the forum.
Exclude Taiwan
Beijing has aggressively sought to exclude Taiwan, a self-governing island of more than 23 million people, from international bodies and rejects its autonomy.
Solomon Islands, China's main partner in the South Pacific, has lobbied for Taiwan to be stripped of its "development partner" status with the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF).
A spokesperson from New Zealand's foreign ministry told AFP on Saturday there had not been a consensus on the paragraph in question.
"There are a range of views among the 18 Pacific Islands Forum members and part of the Pacific way is respect for different views and the importance of consensus," the spokesperson added in a statement.
In the past five years, Solomon Islands, Kiribati and Nauru have all been persuaded to switch diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing.
In 2022, the Solomons signed a security agreement with China, causing concern in the US and Australia and France that Beijing might want to expand its naval operations. The territory of France's New Caledonia borders the one of the Solomon Islands.
Apart from the Taiwan controversy, the PIF resulted in more pledges for the Pacific-led climate change adaptation fund, the Pacific Resilience Facility (PRF), as well as a promise by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to organize a fundraising event. The PRF has $137 million, but leaders want to reach $250 million by January.
Earlier in the week, PIF leaders unveiled a plan to create up to four regional police training centres and a multinational crisis reaction force, backed by $271 million in initial funding from Australia.
France, its territory New Caledonia and PIF leaders also agreed to the terms for a PIF fact-finding mission to New Caledonia, where unrest continues over escalating grievances between Paris and the Indigenous Kanak community.
(With newswires)
