SYDNEY – After decades of stagnant US funding, Pacific island leaders welcomed the United States’ pledge to triple aid to the region to combat illegal fishing, enhance maritime security, and combat climate change.
In a video address to the Pacific Islands Forum in Suva on Wednesday, US Vice President Kamala Harris announced that US funding for Pacific islands would be tripled to $60 million per year for the next decade, pending approval by Congress.
Some Pacific leaders are attempting to balance China’s trade and security ambitions in the region.
Without naming them, Harris urged nations to “stand united” in the face of efforts by bad actors to undermine the international rules-based order.
“We acknowledge that Pacific islands may not have received the diplomatic attention and support they deserved in recent years,” she said.
The Pacific leaders gathered for the four-day forum view climate change as the region’s most pressing security concern, but they are also discussing tensions between China and the United States and Kiribati’s unexpected withdrawal from the forum.
After Harris’s speech, the president of Palau, Surangel Whipps Jr., stated, “It proves the United States are back and willing to play an active role.”
“Occasionally, due to our isolation, we are forgotten, so this was crucial,” he told Reuters.
The forum will discuss China’s proposal to sign a trade and security agreement with ten countries with ties to China, despite opposition from certain members.
Palau maintains military ties with the United States, diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and economic ties with China.
“There are no limits to the opportunities in China. This competition occasionally raises security concerns. “We lived through World War II, and we do not wish to experience it again,” he stated.
The United States is concluding negotiations on a renewed fishing treaty with Pacific island nations that has permitted US vessels to fish in exclusive economic zones for decades, and is offering increased support for maritime surveillance in the region.
Frank Bainimarama, the prime minister of Fiji, stated that the fishing treaty provided an opportunity for the United States to “balance” strategic weaknesses in the Pacific.
Australia’s Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, stated that it was essential for the United States to increase support, including the establishment of new embassies in Kiribati and Tonga.
“We very much welcome the increased presence of the Biden administration in the region,” he said, adding that strategic competition was the backdrop for the conference.
Solomon Islands, a signatory to the US fishing treaty with the Pacific, recently signed a security agreement with China, prompting concern from the United States and its allies, despite Honiara’s statement that it will not permit a navy base.
Steven Victor, the minister of fisheries for Palau, stated that tourism and fisheries were the nation’s only sources of income, and that U.S. funding had remained stagnant for twenty years.
Kiribati, which is also dependent on fishing, concluded fisheries agreements with China a month after the forum’s last in-person meeting in 2019, when it switched diplomatic ties from Taiwan to Beijing.
Monday, a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated at a news briefing, “China has enjoyed good relations with the Pacific Island Forum for many years.” – Reuters
