SEOUL, August 13 (AJP) - Much of the Pacific has spent this year rationing diesel and living with blackouts. On Thursday, Fiji brought that issue to Seoul, asking South Korea to expand energy cooperation at the first meeting between the two countries' foreign ministers in nearly 11 years.
Sakiasi Ditoka, Fiji's minister for foreign affairs and external trade, told Cho Hyun that the Asia-Pacific has no choice but to be more exposed than most regions to the supply disruption caused by the war in the Middle East, because its core energy shipments run through the Strait of Hormuz, South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a readout. He said he hoped Fiji could strengthen energy cooperation with South Korea, which he described as holding advanced refining and stockpiling capacity.
Both ministers agreed that building stable and resilient energy supply chains among countries in the region has become more important than ever, and said they would communicate more closely, according to the ministry.
What Fiji imports, much of the Pacific ends up burning. The country functions as the regional distribution point for fuel that moves on to smaller island states, so a shortfall in Suva turns into a shortfall across a dozen economies within weeks.
That chain has been under strain since Feb. 28, when commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz collapsed after fighting broke out between Iran and the United States and Israel. Kerosene prices across the Pacific rose 42 percent in the months that followed and diesel rose 35 percent, according to the United Nations Development Programme. Tuvalu declared a state of emergency in April and imposed rolling blackouts. The Marshall Islands declared a 90-day economic emergency. The United Nations reported daily outages in parts of Fiji itself, one of the better-prepared economies in the region.
South Korea imports effectively all of its crude and ranks among the most Hormuz-exposed economies in Asia, which is why it built the capacity Ditoka came to talk about. Its four refiners run roughly 3.4 million barrels a day, the fifth-largest refining capacity in the world, and government and commercial stockpiles together cover about 200 days of domestic demand. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources released a record 22.46 million barrels from strategic reserves in March under a coordinated International Energy Agency action.
Seoul has been rerouting its own supply since. Middle Eastern crude accounted for 53.1 percent of South Korea's import mix in April, down from 65.2 percent a year earlier, according to Korea National Oil Corporation figures, as refiners pulled more barrels from the United States and Canada.
Cho welcomed Ditoka in a year that marks 55 years of diplomatic relations, established in January 1971, and called Fiji the anchor of South Korea's diplomacy with Pacific island countries. The meeting schedule has not always matched that description. When 18 Pacific Islands Forum members gathered in Seoul in December for the sixth Korea-Pacific Islands Foreign Ministers' Meeting, Fiji was represented by a deputy minister, and the bilateral meetings Cho held that day were with Solomon Islands, Marshall Islands, Palau and Papua New Guinea. Before Thursday, the last ministerial talks between Seoul and Suva took place on Sept. 14, 2015, during an official visit to Fiji by Yun Byung-se.
On development, Cho said South Korea is concentrating its assistance on sectors Fiji has identified as priorities, including health and energy, and that he hoped it could help improve clinical care and build renewable energy capacity on the islands. Fiji is the largest development cooperation partner South Korea has among Pacific island countries. The Korea International Cooperation Agency is building a national rehabilitation center there under a $10 million grant program that runs to 2027.
Ditoka thanked South Korea for its assistance to date and asked for sustained attention to climate change. The ministers also exchanged views on the Korean Peninsula and the wider Pacific and agreed to cooperate on consular matters, including the protection of South Korean nationals in Fiji.
No supply arrangement, storage agreement or specific energy measure was announced. The readout records an alignment of views and a commitment to talk more often.
The climate request carries a deadline. Fiji hosts the Pre-COP31 preparatory meeting in Nadi from Oct. 5 to 8, with a leaders' event in Tuvalu, before the main climate conference opens in Antalya, Türkiye, on Nov. 9.
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