WELLINGTON: Israel has joined the inter-governmental Pacific Islands Forum as a partner offering climate change adaptation and water management expertise, its foreign ministry said Wednesday.
Israel has beefed up its ties with the Pacific, with tiny Nauru opening an embassy in Jerusalem last month, joining a handful of nations bucking international pressure to recognise Israeli sovereignty in the holy city.
Papua New Guinea and Fiji are also among just seven UN member-states with embassies in Jerusalem -- including the US -- with Samoa set to join them later this year.
The 18-member Pacific Islands bloc has found itself at the centre of a geopolitical contest for influence, and counts the United States, China, France and Britain among 30 so-called development partners.
As major powers jostle for military and economic ties, Pacific leaders agreed last month to reform the bloc's partnerships with nations outside the region into strategic and sector partners.
Israel has joined as a sector partner, its foreign ministry said, in an announcement that coincided with a visit to Fiji and Samoa by the head of Israel's international aid agency MASHAV, Eynat Shlein.
"The cooperation will focus on regional priorities, drawing on Israel's expertise in water management, desalination, agriculture, climate change adaptation, innovation and sustainable development," the statement said.
The forum did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Israel's foreign minister Gideon Sa'ar visited the forum headquarters in Fiji's capital Suva in June.
"Strengthening relations with the Pacific Island nations is one of the foreign minister's priorities," the ministry said in a statement.
"As part of these efforts, Israel opened an embassy in Fiji earlier this year, which also serves nine additional Pacific Island nations that maintain friendly relations with Israel."
The forum said in a statement on Facebook that a meeting with MASHAV's Shlein provided an opportunity for Pacific countries to share "development challenges and capacity-building needs, and to explore practical opportunities for knowledge-sharing and partnerships".
Pacific Islands nations have often proven some of Israel's most steadfast supporters on the international stage.
Many parts of the region hold deep-rooted beliefs in Old Testament prophecy, which holds that Jews are destined to one day return to the Land of Israel.