An experienced regional diplomat who helped Tuvalu craft the landmark Falepili Union with Australia has been appointed the Pacific nation’s new prime minister.
Feleti Teo was elected unopposed after it was revealed his key opponent, Enele Sopoaga, did not have enough support to take out the top position.
The election has been watched closely by Australia after calls by Mr Sopoaga to scrap the Falepili deal, which gives Australia effective veto power over Tuvalu’s security arrangements with any other country.
In exchange, the agreement will see 280 Tuvaluan citizens given a “special mobility pathway” to “live, work and study” in Australia each year.
Mr Teo has not spoken publicly about the Falepili Union but was a member of the eminent persons panel which helped the governments of Tuvalu and Australia formulate the high-profile pact late last year.
Both countries will have to pass legislation through their respective parliaments to give force to the treaty.
One Pacific diplomat, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Australia would be relieved to see Mr Teo take the top job, given he was involved in the process behind the Falepili Union.
“If it’s a choice between Enele [Sopoaga] who wants to tear it up and [Feleti] Teo who was at least in the tent, then you can imagine who Australia wanted to see,” they said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese congratulated Mr Teo in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“Australia deeply values our relationship with Tuvalu, in the spirit of the Falepili Union,” Mr Albanese said.
“Tuvalu can count on Australia’s support and I look forward to working with PM Teo.”
Former Tuvaluan government adviser Jessica Marinaccio said Mr Teo was still likely to seek revisions to sections of the agreement that related to Tuvalu’s security decisions.
“I think most people see that as being a bit dangerous, having language that says, ‘Australia has to mutually agree on any defence or security issue that Tuvalu would undertake,’” Dr Marinaccio said.
“Given that Teo is a lawyer as well, he would agree that that’s pretty risky to have that kind of language and writing.”
Government to address Taiwan, climate change
Tuvalu is one of three Pacific nations that maintains ties with Taiwan rather than China, after the Republic of Nauru switched its diplomatic allegiance last year.
Some Tuvaluan MPs have called for a review of their country’s ties with Taiwan, but Mr Teo’s stance on the matter has not been made public.
Taiwan’s ambassador to Tuvalu told AFP after the vote that he had been assured by Mr Teo that ties were “rock solid, durable and everlasting”.
A statement from Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the ambassador had forwarded a congratulatory message from President Tsai Ing-wen to Mr Teo.
The statement said the president’s special envoy would lead a delegation to Tuvalu in the near future.
Dr Marinaccio said the issue of ties with Taiwan could come up for debate.
“A lot of the people that I know are supporting him [Feleti Teo] are people that are supportive of Taiwan,” she said.
“I think that they definitely will be looking at any issues of foreign relations, not just Taiwan … probably within the first year, if not sooner, of their administration.”
The former pro-Taiwan prime minister of Tuvalu, Kausea Natano, lost his seat in Tuvalu’s general election on January 26.
Another challenge for the new government will be urgently addressing issues relating to climate change.
The vote on the new prime minister was delayed by about three weeks due to dangerous weather that stopped some MPs from being able to travel to the capital, Funafuti.
“There was a lot of destruction that happened on the capital itself due to the king tides and the weather, so we can see that climate change is a really huge issue,” Dr Marinaccio said.
She said the new government could leverage attention it received during the election.
“This is a really good time where Tuvalu can kind of take the lead, use some of that attention to really make forward progress on climate change projects on climate change advocacy.”
‘A really good group of politicians’
Mr Teo, who was educated in New Zealand and Australia, was Tuvalu’s first attorney-general and has decades of experience as a senior official in the fisheries industry — the region’s biggest revenue earner.
He also briefly acted as secretary-general of the Pacific Islands Forum, the region’s peak diplomatic body.
The 61-year-old was voted in unanimously by 16 MPs who met in Funafuti on Monday.
Dr Marinaccio said Mr Teo’s diplomatic experience and background in law put him in good stead to lead the country in the midst of intense geopolitical competition.
“There’s a really good group of politicians that have been elected to represent Tuvalu this time around, especially internationally,” she said.
“It is just very exciting to look at this group and see what kind of things they’re going to be able to do for Tuvalu.”
ABC/AFP
