Pakistan, Oct. 2 -- The Southern Cross shines over a region that is becoming steadily more important - and more contested. From Canberra and Wellington to Suva, Palau and the smaller island states, the dominant themes throughout September were strategic rivalry, economic uncertainty, climate change, regional security and the growing competition for influence between China and the Western powers.

The Pacific is no longer a peripheral theatre. It has become one of the principal arenas in which the future balance of power in the Indo-Pacific will be shaped.

AUSTRALIA

1 September: Australia marked the 75th anniversary of the ANZUS Treaty, the security arrangement linking Australia, New Zealand and the United States. Seventy-five years afte...