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Admiral Karl Schultz says the US Coast Guard plans to partner with Australia, New Zealand and Japan to “offer an international face that is an alternative to other actors in the region”. Photo: AFP

US steps up its activities in the Pacific to counter China’s growing influence: Coast Guard chief

  • Admiral Karl Schultz says there are ‘clear indicators’ of Beijing’s increased presence in the Pacific, even in US territories there
  • The Coast Guard plans to offer themselves as a ‘partner of choice’ to nations in the region, while helping them protect their sovereign interests
The United States Coast Guard will intensify its activities in the Pacific in response to China’s growing influence across the region, according to the force’s commandant Admiral Karl Schultz, who said there were “clear indicators” of Beijing’s increased presence even in the US’ Pacific territories.

Schultz on Tuesday said China had beefed up its maritime presence beyond the “strategic second island chain” – part of which is formed by US-administered Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI).

He said Beijing had also ramped up investments and engagement in those US Pacific territories as well as the Pacific island nations, which are in the region between the Indian and Pacific oceans that the US calls the “Indo Pacific”.

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“We don’t have to look far to see places around the world where economic investment has contributed to things like ownership of ports,” Schultz warned in a call with media from Saipan, the largest island in the CNMI. “Our intention is to offer ourselves as the partner of choice to Pacific island nations, with the capability to help them protect their sovereign interests.”

Beijing says its defence strategy hinges on the ability to freely navigate its navy, including submarines, among the multiple island chains surrounding China’s coast. The first chain includes Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines, while the second includes the CNMI as well as Palau and Micronesia.
In recent months, the US Coast Guard – tasked with protecting America’s maritime interests – has played a bigger role in the western Pacific and the South China Sea as part of a drive to curb Beijing’s maritime expansion.

Its increased activities included a transit of the Taiwan Strait by a US Coast Guard cutter in March; an April visit to Hong Kong for the first time in 17 years; and the transfer of three security cutters to Sri Lanka, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Analysts say that while the intensified US Coast Guard presence mirrors the growing significance of China’s Coast Guard in military operations, the deployment of “white-hulled” Coast Guard ships allows for a reduction of potential conflict in waters previously patrolled mainly by “grey-hulled” warships of both nations’ navies.

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Patrick Gerard Buchan, formerly Australia’s representative on the staff of the US Secretary of Defence, said: “Deploying the Coast Guard sends a signal of strength, but also allows for de-escalation and a possible off-ramp to diplomatic and political discussion.”

In its role as a law enforcement agency, the Coast Guard can do more capacity building with Pacific island nations, said Buchan, who is now at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

As part of a broader push by Washington to increase engagement with the South Pacific – where experts say it has lost focus over the past several decades – the Coast Guard plans to partner with Australia, New Zealand and Japan to “offer an international face that is an alternative to other actors in the region”, Schultz said.
The US Coast Guard national security cutter Bertholf moored at Tsim Sha Tsui in April, the force’s first visit to Hong Kong in 17 years. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

Alan Tidwell, director of the Centre for Australian, New Zealand and Pacific Studies at Georgetown University said: “Washington’s attention to the Pacific islands today is deeper and more intense than any time in the past 30 years.”

The Coast Guard deployment is part of a “whole-of-government approach” the US is taking to the Pacific islands, Tidwell said, including the appointment of a special White House national security adviser on the region for the first time, and ramping up the activity of at least 17 US government agencies there.

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The Coast Guard will support the rights of claimant states in South China Sea disputes to exercise sovereignty of their own territorial waters, Schultz said, including combating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing; search and rescue missions; and the enforcement of international maritime law.

China had “grossly increased” its number of ships operating in the Indo-Pacific region, he said, but the result has not met Washington’s standards for upholding international law. “We have seen behaviours that are not consistent with the rules-based international order. There needs to be an international pushback to say we reject these types of antagonistic and aggressive behaviours.”

Despite US worries, however, Pacific island nations may not be entirely opposed to the increased Chinese presence, said Jian Zhang, director of China engagement at UNSW Canberra at the Australian Defence Force Academy.

“This might be an opportunity for [Pacific island nations] to access aid, economic development and a closer relationship to a great power,” he said.

China’s engagement with the Pacific island nations was motivated by political and economic purposes, Zhang said, like strategic access to their natural resources and their influence in international forums like the United Nations. “If the US wants to maintain its traditional interests in this area, it will need to compensate with China’s level of infrastructure aid and economic investment.”

But if the Washington’s engagement with its Pacific territories is any indicator, experts say the US has room for improvement.

Schultz also visited Guam this week to mark the 75th anniversary of the US Marines landing on the island’s shores to recapture it from Japan. As an American territory, the island’s residents can serve in the military, work and study in the US, but cannot vote in national elections.

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Reparations over damages related to World War II have yet to be paid for at least 754 survivors, even though they have been approved by federal commission, according to the Pacific Daily News.

In a statement released on Sunday to mark the anniversary, President Donald Trump said Guam continued to be an “important strategic hub” and “economic and cultural asset” of the US.

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This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: u.s. to boost coastguard presence in the pacific plans to step up presence in pacific
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