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There goes Minerva reef.

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Had a look on Wikipedia

 

The reefs gained further notoriety in January 1972 in the Republic of Minerva 'incident'. Subsequently, on 24 February, Tonga laid claim to the Minerva Reefs and annexed them on 15 June the same year. The move was recognised by the South Pacific Forum in September. More recently Fiji has made it clear that they do not recognize any maritime water claims by Tonga to the Minerva Reefs under the UNCLOS agreements.

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And this written in 2007

 

TONGA

 

Tonga, Fiji fight over Minerva Reef

 

Tonga and Fiji are disputing ownership of the Minerva Reef, which lies between them and is mostly awashed at high tide.

 

Ownership of the reef would give the ability of one or the other of the countries to claim a larger exclusive economic zone (EEZ), meaning larger fisheries area.

 

Tonga made a formal claim to the reef, that at the time was recognised by Fiji, after an American entrepreneur said he would set up his own tax-free hedonistic state on it.

 

Fiji later realised that the reef could be leverage to enlarge its fishing zone.

 

The dispute will be settled, Fiji hopes, by a baseline survey to fix coordinates accepted by the International Seabed Authority. Fiji claims the reef lies within its 200-mile EEZ.

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Hopefully Fiji cannot afford to permanently patrol the reefs.And there is no dry ground so they cant turn it into another Suvarov.

No matter which country claims it for their economic zone they dont have the resources to protect it.The foreign factory boats have been ripping them off for 50 years.

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China will be in the equation somewhere.

 

or Japan....

 

 

You may be right, rigger.

 

I suggested China because, since Australia and New Zealand jointly and severally, loudly, and probably irrevocably, wrecked their respective bilateral relationships with Fiji, the Fijiians have, quite understandably, cosyed up to China as a source of aid and succour.

 

I have glimpsed the magnitude of China's aid to island nations. Visiting Jamaica,Barbados, and Trinidad* at the time of the last Cricket World Cup, I was bowled over by the Chinese investment in massive 30,000 seat stadiums and hotels.

 

Cricket is not a sport one naturally associates with China but, when it comes to winning hearts and minds in the Caribbean, cricket is the name of the game! In the Pacific the game is likely to be fish.

 

 

* Also in Guyana - which is a mainland South American state but considers herself part of the Caribbean.

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I have glimpsed the magnitude of China's aid to island nations. Visiting Jamaica,Barbados, and Trinidad* at the time of the last Cricket World Cup, I was bowled over by the Chinese investment in massive 30,000 seat stadiums and hotels.

So have I in the Pac Island, it's large. Usually with some strings like the money given to build things is supposed to be used to contract Chinese companies to do the actual work.

 

Mind you the Aussies chuck a lot of coin around trying to buy favours as well.

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When the US fires back on North Korea (who will try to blow the s*%t out of their "exercise").... China will invade Taiwan.... "to protect it".. then the gloves come off! I just hope they wait til April.. that way I am at sea and well away from the fallout!

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The US are having a word in China's ear to have a word in Nth Korea's ear to tone it down a bit. I tell ya, that is one powder keg we don't want to go off. The North doesn't play nice and they they have a hell of a lot bigger toys to wack everyone with this time. Although, it would be more what a "real war" would be. Not this Gorrilla stuff when you have no idea who your enemy actually is. But still, no one will want to have China come into any game anywhere. The world will be in one hell of a big shovel load of brown smelly stuff biffed in the direction of a very big and fast spinning fan. It will not be pretty.

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China will be in the equation somewhere.

 

or Japan....

 

 

.........I suggested China because, since Australia and New Zealand jointly and severally, loudly, and probably irrevocably, wrecked their respective bilateral relationships with Fiji, the Fijiians have, quite understandably, cosyed up to China as a source of aid and succour.

 

.............. In the Pacific the game is likely to be fish.

 

 

 

Anyone interested should read of Owen Glenn's meeting with John Key yesterday. It's in the Dominion today but not aparently on the stuff website yet.

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