Biden: Island states are ‘critical voice’ in shaping future of Indo-Pacific

UPDATED AT 5:40 P.M. EDT ON 9-29-2022

The United States plans more than U.S. $800 million in assistance to Pacific island nations over a decade, the White House announced Thursday, as President Joe Biden pledged to help the region manage the “existential threat” of climate change.

The commitments are part of a flurry of announcements by the Biden administration during a two-day summit in Washington with leaders of small island states in the Pacific, as the U.S. seeks to counter China’s greater influence in the region.

Speaking during the second day of the meeting, Biden said the U.S. partnership with the Pacific islands states was crucial in the fight for a “free and open Indo-Pacific.” 

“A great deal of the history of our world is going to be written in the Indo-Pacific over the coming years and decades, and the Pacific islands are a critical voice in shaping that future,” Biden said. 

“That’s why my administration has made it a priority to strengthen our partnership with your countries and with the Pacific Islands Forum.”

He said that the close to $1 billion in new commitments in aid from the United States include $130 million to support “climate resilience” among the Pacific islands economies, as well as for early-warning systems to help the region’s government respond to climate disasters.

“We’re seeing the consequences of climate change around the world very vividly, including in the United States right now,” he said, referring to Hurricane Ian, “and I know your nations feel it acutely, and for you all it’s an existential threat.”

The two-day forum is the first of its type to be hosted by the White House and includes the leaders of the Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, French Polynesia, Papua New Guinea, the Marshall Islands, New Caledonia, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga and Tuvalu, as well as officials from Nauru, Palau and Vanuatu.

Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama praised the meeting, as well as Biden’s focus on combating climate change.

“Our Blue Pacific is an oceanic superpower that belongs side-by-side with America, the world’s mightiest military and economic power,” Bainimarama said in a tweet. “With @JoeBiden’s return to the Paris accords, we are confident in what the first US-Pacific Island Summit can deliver for people and the planet.”

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Earlier on Thursday, the White House also released a new U.S. strategy for the Pacific, as well as information about the new spending commitments alluded to by Biden in his speech.

“The United States has directly provided over $1.5 billion to support the Pacific Islands over the past decade and today has announced over $810 million in additional expanded programs,” it said. “These initiatives seek to improve the lives and wellbeing of all Pacific Islanders.” 

The new aid package requires approval from Congress and includes a previously flagged $600 million of economic assistance tied to a U.S. tuna treaty with Pacific nations that gives fishing rights to American vessels, according to a document released by the White House.

On top of plans to expand the U.S. diplomatic presence in the Pacific, the U.S. said that USAID will establish a regional mission in Fiji by September next year. Another development agency, Peace Corps, will return to the region, starting with Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and Vanuatu.

The U.S. government simultaneously released a Pacific strategy document that echoes many of the issues Pacific nations have called attention to, including the threat of rising sea levels and illegal fishing.

The summit is meant to show a deeper U.S. commitment to a vast and economically lagging region, which over the past two decades has increasingly turned to China to meet its development needs, officials and analysts said.

Concerns in Washington about China’s influence in the region were amplified after Beijing inked a security pact with the Solomons Islands five months ago.

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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking at the opening of the summit on Wednesday, said Pacific nations had agreed to the text of a declaration of partnership with the United States. 

Henry Puna, secretary-general of the Pacific Islands Forum, an important regional institution, said the summit had made a “great start.” Trade and economic discussions were “productive,” Puna said on Twitter. 

The Pacific strategy document reiterated that the United States intends to open an embassy in the Solomon Islands, where Washington has lacked a full-time diplomatic presence since the early 1990s. It will also begin discussions with other Pacific countries including Tonga and Kiribati about opening embassies.

The United States says it currently has six embassies in the region.

UPDATED with details from the second day of the summit.

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news service.