When the US wanted to put together a phony ‘coalition of the willing’ it turned to tiny rent-a-nations like Palau. When the Russians wanted to do the same thing with the piece they carved out of Georgia, they trot out sovereign entities such as the island nation of Nauru.
Impoverished Nauru, all 21 square kilometers of it, used to make its money from selling phosphates derived from sea bird droppings. When fossilised guano ran low, it established itself as a tax haven and dabbled in money-laundering. More recently, it has earned money by acting as a detention centre for refugee ‘boat people’ making the perilous journey across the Pacific to seek asylum in Australia.
Struggling to stave off total destitution, Nauru has also developed its own special form of ‘guano diplomacy’. In 2002, it derecognised Taiwan in return for a $150 million ‘aid’ package from China. This week, it recognised both Abkhazia and South Ossetia after reportedly securing some $50 million of Russian ‘aid’.
