With Pacific Island Nations summit, US hopes to restore influence in region eroded by China
- To address issues of greatest concern to Pacific Islanders, the US says it is focusing on climate change, education, investment, trade and recovery from Covid-19
- The Pacific Island nations are in a relatively enviable position of being courted by two superpowers and should take advantage of it, analyst says
The US has pledged to roll out a strategic plan and “big dollar” assistance at a two-day Pacific Island Nations summit that opened on Wednesday amid hopes that the pomp and “deliverables” of a state visit in Washington will prove a match for China’s growing clout and presence in the Indo-Pacific.
The region has emerged as a high-profile wrestling pit between the US and China. But critics say the US took the small but strategically important Pacific Island nations for granted until China established diplomatic ties with the Solomon Islands in 2019. Washington hopes to change that perception this week.
“Every nation, no matter how big, no matter how small, has the right to its own path,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told leaders from a dozen Pacific Island nations and lower-level representatives from four other countries at a lunch on Wednesday. “The United States shares your vision and we are committed to help realise it.”
In an effort to address issues of greatest concern to the region and otherwise “meet Pacific Islanders where they live”, the US is focused on climate change, education, investment, trade and recovery from Covid-19, a senior official said.
But two days of meals and meetings with the US State, Commerce and Defence departments, Congress and the US Coast Guard are also expected to include an ample dose of US geostrategic messaging.