This is

the CBS I on the world. I'm John Bachelors with Gregory Coppley. My colleague, he is editor and publisher of Defense and Foreign Affairs.

He's in Perth Australia looking at the world from the point of view of the

Southern Hemisphere coming springtime.

And the Indo-Pacific map to Gregory's west is the Indian Ocean. To Gregory's north-east is the

Pacific Ocean. And the defense of Australia, our ally in New Zealand and the other states that are allied with the US that

would start with Japan and South Korea depend very much on the cooperation

and allegiance of the Pacific Island states. cooperation and

meeting recently I believe in Tonga, which is an island that suffered the volcano in

these last years.

The Pacific Island Forum.

What was notable about it is that the Solomon Islands

have now fallen under the sway, the persuasion of the People's Republic of China

and voiced protest that Taiwan was invited as an observer at the PIF.

There were also remarks by Mr. Albanese and American counselors about offering

policing money to the Pacific Island Forum. They're thinking about

policing as a way of putting a foot in the door so that the PRC

doesn't use its money and influence shopping to persuade other states beside the Solomon to come on over.

Gerger, is there any significant change out of the PIF?

Solomons have they been joined by anybody else?

Well, no, the Solomons didn't gain a lot of traction with their bid to ban the

participation of a Taiwanese or a Republic of China delegation at the talks in Nukalofa in Tonga.

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