by Joe Brock
SINGAPORE, June 12 (Reuters) – Climate change poses the biggest security threat to the Asia-Pacific region, Fiji’s defense minister said on Sunday at a war-dominated defense summit in Ukraine. and disputes between China and the United States.
The Pacific Low Islands, which include Fiji, Tonga and Samoa, are among the countries most vulnerable to the effects of extreme weather events caused by climate change.
Fiji has suffered a series of tropical cyclones in recent years that have caused devastating floods that have displaced thousands of people from their homes and weighed on the island’s economy.
“On our Pacific blue continent, machine guns, fighter jets, gray ships and green battalions are not our primary security concern,” Fiji Defense Minister Inia Seruiratu said during the dialogue. Shangri-La, an international conference on defense and security in Asia-Pacific.
“The greatest threat to our very existence is climate change. It threatens our hopes and dreams of prosperity.”
The conference, which ends on Sunday, was dominated by debate over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and rising tensions between the United States and China over a range of issues, including Taiwan’s sovereignty and naval bases in the Pacific.
(French version Benjamin Mallet)