SYDNEY, Australia – The United States and 14 Pacific island nations signed a broad partnership agreement on Thursday at a summit in Washington that puts climate change, economic growth and close security ties in place. more central to US efforts to counter Chinese influence in the region.
“A lot of the history of our world will be written in the Indo-Pacific in the years and decades to come,” President Biden said at a meeting with island nation leaders. “And the islands in the Pacific are an important voice in shaping the future.”
“The security of America, and the world,” he added, “depends on your security and the security of the islands in the Pacific.”
His comments — and the promise of greater funding and cooperation from the United States — reflected a recent realization that has become more pressing in Washington: that China has made significant inroads into the supply chains. islands in the North and South Pacific, home to thousands of Americans. fought and died in World War II, and America needs to catch up.
This week’s summit was first announced shortly after the signing of the Solomon Islands a confidentiality agreement in April with Beijing opened the door to Chinese law enforcement training and a possible foothold for Chinese security forces.
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That deal will likely be a big hit for China, which was seen as more skeptical of the Pacific than it was a few years ago, but the sensitivities around its foreign policy priorities China still seems to be around the Washington summit.
Manasseh Sogavare, prime minister of the Solomon Islands, initially refused to sign the partnership agreement, in what critics describe as a nod to Beijing. His and other leaders’ signatures were included in the statement only after a provision referring to Taiwan, a democratic island that China considers a breakaway province, was dropped from the draft.
During briefings, White House officials said that the United States is committed to dialogue with countries in the region on complex issues. They emphasized that the summit created additional engagement and partnership opportunities beyond the recent promises of three new US embassies, in Tonga, Solomon Islands and Kiribati.
The United States will invest more than $810 million in expansion programs for Pacific islands, in addition to more than $1.5 billion provided over the past decade, according to a White House fact sheet.
Much of the money will go toward climate resilience and maritime security, including a $600 million request to Congress related to a decades-old fisheries treaty that allows the United States to fish for tuna in the Pacific Ocean. South Pacific Ocean.
But this pack also includes some cool bonbons – a Funding 20 million dollars to the Solomon Islands for tourism development, $3.5 million for domestic digital connectivity, and $2.8 million for FBI-led law enforcement training.
Originally intended for three Pacific island nations, law enforcement aid will now be spread to six: the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and the Solomons.
Peace Corps volunteers will also return to Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and Vanuatu, while other countries are also being considered for the program. And the United States, according to the White House, is also engaged in bilateral negotiations with Fiji on a defense cooperation agreement, and will soon begin negotiations with Papua New Guinea.
Leaders in the region were mostly satisfied with the summit. China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has rolled out the red carpet welcoming Pacific leaders for nearly a decade. Biden’s charm attack seems more casual.
Regional analysts say US assistance, spread across many countries, will not have a transformative effect.
“The dilemma has always been how to get US private companies to invest more in the Pacific,” said Graeme Smith, a Pacific Islands expert at the Australian National University. “You can turn on the military faucet and with the approval of Congress, the aid faucet, but unlike China, they can’t push their companies to get involved in the region.”
Anna Powles, a senior lecturer in security studies at Massey University in New Zealand, notes that announcements about these initiatives are a bit thin on administrative details.
One of the main complaints about U.S. foreign policy in the Pacific is that the country is so bogged down with bureaucratic requirements and understaffed that the United States is a red sea turtle to its swift rabbit. China. For many islanders, it will take more than flyers and summits to change that perception.
“The region will seek to fulfill all of those commitments,” Professor Powles said. “They’ll be looking for consistency in their interactions.”
