The South Pacific Confederation

This is my idea for a proposed political and economic alliance in the South Pacific, called the South Pacific Confederation.  It is made up of 13 countries and territories which are all highly developed. I have "cherry-picked" the countries, excluding countries and territories which are too large (Indonesia) or too small or too poor (Philippines).

I think of this as the "Australian Empire".  It is a region that is connected with the rise of China, but is independent of it.

Countries:

• Australia
• Brunei
• French Polynesia (French territory)
• Guam (U.S. territory)
• Hawaii (U.S. state)
• Hong Kong (Chinese S.A.R.)
• Macau (Chinese S.A.R.)
• Malaysia
• New Caledonia (French territory)
• New Zealand
• Singapore
• South Korea
• Taiwan

Total Population: 143 million
Total GDP(ppp): $4.6 trillion

The political capital is Singapore.  The financial capital is Sydney, and the military capital is Honolulu.  I exclude Hong Kong because of its tenuous political situation.

The currency used is the Australian dollar (AUD).  This is because the Australian economy is the second largest of the group (behind only South Korea), and the AUD is more frequently traded than the won.