Karmactive Team
The Australia-Tuvalu Falepili Union Treaty was signed on 9 November 2023 and came into force on 28 August 2024.
Photo Source: Google
Australia has committed to assist Tuvalu in response to major natural disasters, health pandemics, or military aggression, and will create a special visa pathway to support mobility.
Tuvalu will ensure effective implementation of international standards in immigration, passports, citizenship, and border controls, with mutual agreement with Australia on security and defence-related matters in Tuvalu.
Under this treaty, Australia has contributed a total of $38 million to the Tuvalu Coastal Adaptation Project (TCAP).
According to the United Nations Development Programme, the island nation of Tuvalu will sink almost completely by the year 2100, if no action is taken.
Tuvalu is not the only country facing difficulties with rising sea levels, as in December 2022, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea received a request from the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law (COSIS) to deliver an advisory opinion on obligations for preventing pollution and protecting the marine environment.
In its advisory opinion, the tribunal said that individual countries have obligations to prevent and control pollution caused by their GHG emissions and that countries have an obligation to protect and preserve the marine environment from climate change impacts and ocean acidification.
The Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, said that the Australia-Tuvalu Falepili Union Treaty will be regarded as a significant day in which Australia acknowledged its role as part of the Pacific family, and with that comes responsibility to act on the request from our friends in Tuvalu and step up the relationship between our two nations.
Kausea Natano, Prime Minister of Tuvalu, expressed that this treaty will guide them to respect each other's sovereignty and commit to safeguard and support each other as they face existential threats from climate change and geostrategic challenges.
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