Sydney: Samoa’s new prime minister has announced that she will cancel a China-backed port project. She has not closed her door to China as she navigates a path for the Pacific nation as regional competition between Beijing and Washington heats up.
Fiame Naomi Mataafa hinted she would only approve investments that had clear benefits for her country and expressed doubts about the Pacific’s value as a pawn in the geopolitical tussle between the two superpowers. Mataafa said China’s interest in the Pacific grew as the United States effectively ‘moved out’ of the region.
‘There seems to be a renewed interest in the Pacific, which may be a good thing, but not necessarily,’ Mataafa told The Epoch Times on July 28, days after her election confirmation ended a months-long political crisis.
Samoa, an island nation of around 200,000 people, has been exposed to external geopolitical jostling, as Washington and its allies respond to a more assertive Beijing in Pacific waters that have largely been contested since World War II. Foreign involvement in critical infrastructure, such as ports and airstrips, is especially sensitive, and China’s proposed construction of a wharf in Vaiusu Bay affected the April election.
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Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, a former leader of Samoa, promised to build the port with Chinese assistance for $100 million after a similar project was deemed unviable by the Asian Development Bank.
Mataafa told Reuters that, after her election but before taking office, she would scrap the project. She called it excessive for a nation that is already heavily indebted to China.
China is Samoa’s largest creditor, accounting for about 40 percent of its external debt, or around $160 million. ‘We’ve indicated that would not be a priority for us at this time and that there would be other areas that we would be more interested in,’ Mataafa told Reuters on July 28. ‘I’m pleased the outgoing government had not reached a level of agreement with China where that is set in place.’
China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on July 30 that it had held preliminary discussions with Samoa about the feasibility of building the port at the request of the former government.
Mattaafa noted that China had been a long term partner, and her government evaluated the relationship the same way as it does all of its bilateral relations.
‘I think as a new administration coming in we will do that for China and any other partner that we have,’ she said.
Mattaffa believes that the nature of the work being funded by China puts it at the forefront. There’s a lot of infrastructure, mostly building infrastructure which other donors don’t do,’ she said.
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