Samoa

While incumbent held on to power, the Polynesian island nation will have a new PM: Laaulialemalietoa Leuatea Schmidt.

The incumbent Fa’atuatua i le Atua Samoa ua Tasi (FAST) party has been confirmed as the winner of the national election in Samoa.

Official results released by the Samoan electoral commission on Friday showed that FAST won 30 out of the 50 seats contested. However, Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa departed the party earlier this year and will be succeeded by new FAST leader Laaulialemalietoa Leuatea Schmidt.

The main opposition Human Rights Protection Party won 14 seats. Independent candidates took another four.

The Samoa Uniting Party, formed earlier this year by Fiame – known as the “Iron Lady of the Pacific” – won only three seats, including her own. She was expelled from FAST in January amid a factional dispute.

Rising prices had been cited as a key issue for voters in the country of about 220,000 people.

Before the election on August 29, in Apia, the Samoan capital, residents had told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation they were looking forward to political stability and wanted the next government to focus on the economy and jobs.

On Friday, Samoa’s head of state, Afioga Tuimalealiifano Vaaletoa Sualauvi II, had issued a warrant confirming the names of the new lawmakers who will form Samoa’s next parliament.

Five women have won seats. The Samoa Observer reported that under a 10 percent minimum representation rule, at least six women must sit in parliament, necessitating the creation of an additional seat.

Fiame became Samoa’s first female leader in 2021, winning an election that unseated Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi after 22 years.

She raised the international profile of the nation by hosting the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting last year, focused on the effect of climate change in the Pacific.

But after being unable to gain enough support to pass a budget, Fiame asked in June for parliament to be dissolved. She has been serving in the role of acting prime minister since.

England: Sing; Breach, Jones, Shekells, Moloney-MacDonald; Rowland, Packer; Clifford, Atkin-Davies, Bern, Campion, Galligan, Burton, Packer (capt), Feaunati.

Replacements: Campbell, Carson, Muir, Talling, Kabeya, Hunt, Harrison, Kildunne.

Samoa: Wright-Akeli; Lasini, Pouri-Lane, Makisi, Fiafia; Vatau, Afuie; Aiolupotea, Nonutunu, Aiono, C Onesemo-Tuilaepa, D Onesemo-Tuilaepa, Atonio, Pauaraisa, Foaese.

Replacements: Leuta, Tauasosi, Losefo, Sio, Jamie Iva, Leaula, Ah-Cheung.

While the loss to Fiji was damaging to Scotland, a loss to Samoa would have been unthinkable. However, Ashman’s early score eased any jitters.

The Australia-bound hooker latched on to a driving maul to put Scotland in the lead after seven minutes, but in those early stages they’d had to stand up to some surging Samoa attack.

But after they landed the first blow, the backline kicked into gear. Stafford McDowall kicked through for Hutchinson to collect with the Northampton man darting over for Scotland’s only central score of the first half.

The next one was much wider, as the impressive Jamie Dobie looped a long miss pass out to the scampering Reed to dot down in the corner.

Five minutes later, they had their fourth. Dobie, Fergus Burke and Rowe all timed passes to perfection, with Steyn cantering in untouched.

They started the second-half in equally clinical fashion. Pounding at the Samoan barricades, the battering ram of Gilchrist eventually broke through to timber over for only his second international score.

Any hope of shutting out the hosts was soon snuffed out as replacement George Horne threw a blind pass on his own five-metre while being bundled into touch. Samoan lock Nee-Nee was on hand to intercept, gleeful at such an opportunity being handed to him.

Scotland responded immediately. From a scrum they went left, then right, then left again. Andy Onyeama-Christie carried hard, as did Matt Fagerson, but it was Burke’s pop-up offload from the deck which gave Rowe the chance to leap into the corner and touch down.

Toulon centre Paia’aua was able to get one back for Samoa, spinning out of the hands of two Scotland tacklers, but Turner got the seventh from the back of a driving maul.

The scoreline could have been far more comfortable, but Burke forgot his kicking boots and could only land one of his four conversion attempts. It was a greasy surface, in fairness to the Scotland newbee.

Foreign minister Wang Yi is meeting top diplomats from 11 Pacific nations in the Chinese city of Xiamen.

China is hosting a high-level meeting with 11 Pacific Island nations as it seeks to deepen ties and build what it calls a “closer” community with “a shared future” in the strategic region.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is chairing the meeting in the city of Xiamen on Wednesday.

The president of Kiribati, Taneti Maamau, and top diplomats from Niue, Tonga, Nauru, Micronesia, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Cook Islands, Fiji and Samoa are attending.

The two-day meeting is the third such gathering, but the first to happen in person in China.

Al Jazeera’s Katrina Yu, reporting from Beijing, said the diplomats are expected to discuss trade, infrastructure development, poverty alleviation, sustainability and climate change.

“For China, this is an opportunity to extend its influence and expand economic ties at a time when the United States is showing very little interest in this region, and we know increasingly that many of those countries are more aligned on China on things like investment, infrastructure, trade and even security assistance,” she said.

Global uncertainty

The meeting comes as United States President Donald Trump’s cuts to foreign aid and the threat of tariffs fuel global uncertainty. Analysts say this has left the door open for China to step in.

“This lack of certainty makes the US a very challenging partner to work with,” said Tess Newton at the Griffith Asia Institute. “Whereas other partners including China can offer, well you know we were here yesterday, we’re here today, and we expect to be here tomorrow.”

The Chinese foreign ministry, announcing the meeting last week, said the objective of the meeting was to “jointly build an even closer China-Pacific Island countries community with a shared future”.

Analysts say that for Beijing, that translates to greater economic aid, diplomatic engagement and the pursuit of a regional security pact.

China has already signed a security accord with the Solomon Islands in 2022, a year after deploying police to the ground in the capital, Honiara, following a series of riots there.

Beijing has also sent advisers to Vanuatu and Kiribati and wants to lock in a similar pact with other island nations.

“What China is trying to do … is to insert itself as a security player and in some cases through the angle of contributing to the individual security needs of Pacific countries such as policing,” said Mihai Sora, director of the Pacific Islands Program at the Lowy Institute in Australia.

The meeting in Xiamen is “an opportunity for China” to push its goals “in its own space, on its own turf and on its own terms,” he added.

Taiwan

The topic of Taiwan, the self-ruled island that China claims as its own and lies off the coast of Xiamen, is also expected to be discussed at this meeting.

China has been gradually whittling away at the number of countries in the Pacific that retain ties with Taiwan, and in January of last year, Nauru also switched recognition to Beijing.

Taiwan now has three remaining allies in the region – Marshall Islands, Palau and Tuvalu.

Al Jazeera’s Yu said the region is of strategic, military and diplomatic significance for China.

“If you look at the region, these countries are very small, their economies are small and only one of them has a population that exceeds one million. That is Papua New Guinea,” she said.

“But the region is strategically extremely important to Beijing because it’s home to crucial shipping lanes, deep sea cables, deep sea ports and potential mineral deposits underwater. Militarily, it could be strategically important, because if there could be any conflict in the future, this area could be important in terms of launching potential forward attacks on US territory, and also US ally Australia is very close by.”