MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) – Tuvalu's former attorney general, Fereti Teo, was appointed Monday as prime minister of the small South Pacific nation. Election 1 month ago The last government leader was ousted.
Mr Teo was the only candidate nominated by 15 of his fellow MPs, and Governor Tofiga Vaevalu Farani declared him elected unopposed, Government Secretary Tufoa Panapa said in a statement.
The swearing-in ceremony for Teo and his ministers is expected to take place later this week.
It is not immediately clear what impact the new administration will have. Chinese influence A country with a population of approximately 11,500 located between Australia and Hawaii.
The former prime minister Causea Natano In the January 26 election, three of the eight ministers were not re-elected.
Natano wanted it Tuvalu It remains one of only 12 countries with formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, an autonomous democracy that China claims as its own territory.
Mr. Natano's former finance minister, Seve Paeniu, was seen as a potential leadership candidate and had argued for a review of Tuvalu's relations with both China and Taiwan.
A proposed security treaty between Tuvalu and Australia could be rewritten or scrapped under the new government. The treaty, announced in November last year, commits Australia to assist Tuvalu in response to major natural disasters, pandemics and military invasions.
Australia offers Tuvaluan A lifeline to evacuate residents from rising sea levels and increased storms brought on by climate change.Especially the lowland atolls of Tuvalu. susceptible to global warming. Australia initially planned to allow up to 280 Tuvaluans to come to Australia each year.
The treaty, which has not yet been ratified, gives Australia a veto over security and defense deals that Tuvalu seeks to strike with other countries, including China.
Tuvaluan MP Enele Sopoaga, who served as prime minister until the last election in 2019, opposes the treaty.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese referenced the treaty when celebrating Mr Teo's election.
“Australia deeply values our relationship with Tuvalu in the spirit of the Wharepiri Alliance,” Mr Albanese said on social media, referring to the treaty, formally known as the Australia-Tuvalu-Wharepiri Alliance.
“Tuvalu can count on Australia's support and we look forward to working with Prime Minister Teo,” Mr Albanese added.
Before Mr Teo was announced as prime minister, Meg Keene, director of the Pacific Islands Program at the Sydney-based think tank Lowy Institute, said the new government would review the treaty and “put its own stamp on it”. .
“My view is that the adjustments are negotiable and there is a good chance that an agreement will move forward,” Keene said.
George Carter, an international politics expert at the Australian National University, said Mr Teo had received support from a majority of 10 of the 16 MPs within two weeks of the election.
Carter said Teo's supporters want Tuvalu to continue its ties with Taiwan and are unlikely to change its allegiance to China in the near future.
“I think for now he will try not to shake up the current state of affairs in terms of support for Taiwan. But things could change,” he said.
Mr Carter said Mr Teo had told his supporters that former prime minister Sopoaga and former finance minister Paeniu would be removed from the cabinet.
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Lavalette contributed from Perth, Australia.
