SBuildings and trees are damaged after Cyclone Winston swept through the town of Ba on Fiji’s Viti Levu Island, February 21, 2016. REUTERSPIX: Fiji's defence minister said on Sunday that climate change posed the biggest security threat in the Asia-Pacific region, a shift in tone at a defence summit that has been dominated by the war in Ukraine and disputes between China and the United States.
Fiji has been battered by a series of tropical cyclones in recent years, causing devastating flooding that has displaced thousands from their homes and hobbled the island's economy. “The single greatest threat to our very existence is climate change. It threatens our very hopes and dreams of prosperity.”
The Pacific islands became a focus of regional tensions this year after China signed a security pact with the Solomon Islands in April, alarming the United States, Australia and New Zealand, who fear a stepped-up military presence by Beijing in the Pacific.