Exchanging Minerva for the Lau Islands – a geopolitical joke

Lord Ma’afu of Tonga, Minister of Lands, Survey, and Natural Resources, and one of the highest ranking chiefs of the island kingdom, could not have been serious when he told a reporter that he would propose that Tonga give up Minerva Reef in exchange for the Lau islands from Fiji.

He was typically making a political joke, culturally and appropriately funny, especially when his remarks were directed at a Fijian reporter who lives in Tonga.

The Fijian reporter, Iliesa Tora, must have thought he had scored a scoop, by writing a story on Ma’afu’s remarks for the Fiji Sun newspaper. A couple of other media outlets also picked up the story and ran with it.

In fact the encounter between the Tongan noble and the Fijian reporter could have been better put into a cartoon caricature than a news story.

Sources close to Ma’afu said the remark was not only a political joke but was also believed that it would be ‘off the record’.

‘It was a ‘teaser’, a joke intended not to be taken seriously, because it would be plainly ridiculous to do so,’ said the source.

When I first came across the story, my immediate reaction was that the Tongan noble had scored a good one over the Fijian reporter. I chuckled, but was also able to understand culturally what was behind Ma’afu’s comments. It was more or less the kind of situation where… well, ‘if you ask a stupid question, you will get a stupid answer.’

For one thing, Tonga does not conduct its foreign affairs by telling a reporter what it proposes to do without the Minister of Foreign Affairs knowing about it, let alone the Prime Minister, Parliament or the people of Tonga.

And of-course the government of Fiji who would lose a major portion of their country for some uninhabited reef, had the right to at least be approached and given, with strict confidentiality, the proposal before being publicized.

How about the people of Lau? Don’t they have a say in this?

To take this Minerva for Lau trade-off remark seriously is also an affront on Ma’afu himself. It would make him look like a maverick Minister, giving such a remark without going through the proper channels and process. It is very far fetched.

Ma’afu is one of the most knowledgeable and experienced leaders on foreign affairs and diplomatic relations in Tonga. There is no way he could be serious whatsoever about asking Fiji for Lau in exchange for Minerva.

Ma’afu is also a military man. He understands chains of command and due process. He is not an uneducated nostalgic noble that lives in the past and entertain dream-like aspirations, even when his namesake and relative was the Paramount Chief of Lau at one time.

So, for a Fijian reporter to take Ma’afu’s comments so seriously, and to even write a news story on it, is simply unprofessional, if not totally naive.

I also note that a couple of Tongan news organizations have picked up on the story and ran it without any analysis, just an expanded version with a lot of inaccurate history about Tonga and the Lau islands.

Ma’afu, who was out of town when this so-called story broke, must be smiling, and feeling somewhat comforted that a Fijian reporter fell for his joking remarks. How often in history does one sovereign nation give up rich inhabited islands for an uninhabited reef?

In five months time, this current government will be out of office. Tonga will have pretty much a new Parliament, a new Prime Minister, a new Cabinet, and you can bet there will be on Minerva for Lau.

Fiji’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Ratu Inoke Kubuabola, who is in Korea could not comment. But his permanent secretary Amena Yauvoli said, ‘the ministry would just have to wait for the Tongan Government’s proposal.’

Let me suggest that they will be waiting for a very long time, and such a proposal as said in jest by the Tongan Minister will not be made.

But political joke aside, the fact is there is some tension in the Tonga – Fiji relationship in regards to who owns Minerva. This is nothing that the Tongan and Fijian leaders could not sit down and discuss in the spirit of diplomacy and the Pacific way.

For one thing, Fiji is not just Tonga’s closest neighbor. It is Tonga’s closest friend. And that goes back for centuries. There are also many Fijians and Tongans who are related through blood, including some of the highest ranking chiefs in Fiji, as well as the royal family of Tonga.

Minerva reef consists of two submerged atolls named after a whaling ship Minerva that was wrecked on the reef in 1829.

The source of tension is an issue that needs to be sorted out, the sooner the better.

Tonga has claimed, through royal proclamation, the Minerva reefs, and Fiji had initially agreed to it, until later when Fiji realized that with the 200 mile EEZ proposal, Minerva could actually be within their claim.

On the submission by Tonga on the outer limits of the continental shelf of the Kingdom of Tonga to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in 2009, the following reference to an ancient claim by the founder of modern Tonga, King George Tupou I was quoted:

‘The Royal Proclamation issued by His Majesty George Tupou, King of Tonga, on 24 August 1887 claims national jurisdiction by the Kingdom of Tonga over ‘all, islands, rocks, reefs, foreshores and waters lying between the fifteenth and twenty-third and a half degrees of south latitude and between the one hundred and seventy-third and the one hundred and seventy-seventh degrees of west longitude from the Meridian of Greenwich.’

Eighty-five years later in 1972, Tupou’s great, great, grandson, King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV made a royal proclamation that Minerva belongs to Tonga, the two atolls were named Teleki Tokelau (North) and Teleki Tonga (South). Tonga constructed two structures in each of the reefs where beacons were placed.

In 2005, Fiji made a submission to the International Seabed Authority denouncing Tonga’s royal proclamation over the Minerva reefs by King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV in 1972.

Tonga took this as an affront, because it showed political inconsistency with Fiji recognizing the royal proclamation in 1972, and again in September of the same year at the South Pacific Forum held in Suva.

The Tongan military has safeguarded the beacons on these underwater reefs for 42 years until now.

Tensions between Tonga and Fiji over Minerva flared in 2011, when the beacons on the reefs were removed and the structures damaged allegedly by the Royal Fiji Navy.

His Majesty’s Armed Services were instructed to replace the beacons on Teleki Tokelau and Teleki Tonga, which they did. They also increased their patrol of the area, making the Tongan military presence felt.

With its full submission on the country’s continental shelf gaining UN approval, what this does is consolidate Tonga’s right to sponsor deep-sea mining in the international waters outside its economic exclusive zone.

This will probably ignite border disputes in the highly contested Lau Basin between Tonga and Fiji over rights to sponsor deep-sea mining. This is why territorial clarification over the sovereignty of the Minerva reefs is integral to determining which country, Tonga or Fiji, will have greater geopolitical power and authority in the Lau Basin.

But why are the Minerva reefs, north and south, important to Tonga as sovereign territory? Both reefs are under water. The beacons require maintenance and because the area is contested by Fiji, it requires the Tongan military to patrol, survey and secure the area. This is a costly exercise, which Tonga can hardly afford.

But emotional attachment would have topped the list as the answer to why the reefs are important to Tonga. As King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV claimed, Tongans have been fishing in the area since time immemorial.