Sharp divisions emerge at Port Moresby summit as Japan and US push back against China’s growing influence in the Pacific
The Apec summit has been unable to produce a joint communique because of tensions between the US and China over trade and security issues which flared throughout the gathering of regional leaders.
While Australia’s prime minister, Scott Morrison, had struck an upbeat note as Apec drew to a close, declaring that Washington and Beijing were getting closer to resolving a trade war that threatens economic growth in the region, the Port Moresby summit failed to reach consensus on a concluding statement because of differences between the major powers.
As sharp divisions scuttled the prospect of regional consensus, rolling controversy over the potential relocation of Australia’s embassy in Israel also intensified at the weekend, with government figures now openly at odds about whether the Morrison government should shift its current policy or not.
Morrison has come under intense pressure from conservatives to follow through on his signal in October that Australia would follow Donald Trump’s controversial policy on the Middle East. The former prime minister Tony Abbott told Sky News on Sunday night there were “very strong arguments” for moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Joining fellow government conservatives who are front-running cabinet deliberations on the shift, Abbott said West Jerusalem was the capital of Israel and that’s where the Australian embassy should be.
“However much we take seriously our large Muslim neighbours, neither Indonesia nor Malaysia have ever been accustomed to dictate our policy,” Abbott said. “We should make our decisions based on our national interests and our national values.
“And why shouldn’t we be showing solidarity with the only functioning liberal pluralist democracy in the Middle East, by supporting them and putting our embassy in their capital?”
On the ABC, the defence industry minister, Steve Ciobo – a former trade minister who did much of the preparatory work on the free trade deal with Indonesia – said his personal view was the embassy should remain where it was.
Ciobo said in time he would like to see an embassy in West Jerusalem and a diplomatic facility recognising the Palestinian state in East Jerusalem – but he suggested that was a long way off in practical terms, and he said it was important for Australia to move in lockstep with the rest of the world.
