An Unthinkable Question: Tuvalu and the Falepili Union

Abstract

On 10 November 2023, Australia and Tuvalu announced the Falepili Union, a bilateral treaty which seeks to establish a climate-related special human mobility pathway, a security guarantee and recognition of Tuvalu's continuing sovereignty—even if it loses its land to climate-induced sea-level rise. The signing of the Union generated significant media attention, with commentators heralding the agreement as "groundbreaking", "innovative" and a "world first".
This article contends that the Union is not as novel as this media reporting suggests. Exploring the origins of this treaty, this article contextualises the Union within a sequence of legislative, policy and constitutional developments in Tuvalu and the Pacific more generally. It demonstrates that in negotiating the Union, Tuvalu has advanced several of its longstanding foreign policy, climate and security-related goals. In doing so, this article challenges the dominant discourse surrounding the Union which has emphasised the role of Australia and its interests in shaping the Union—an emphasis which has largely ignored Tuvalu's agency in the creation of the Union.