US Vice President Kamala Harris announced today, Wednesday, funding of up to 600 million dollars in the Pacific region in an attempt to contain China’s progress in this region.
Harris said Washington would open two new embassies, one in Tonga and one in Kiribati.
“This is an important step,” she added, addressing the Pacific Islands Forum in Suva, Fiji’s capital, via video link. We are very happy about the recent American presence in Tonga.”
Washington also intends to appoint an envoy to the Pacific and launch a national strategy for the region for a first of its kind.
The rivalry between China and the United States sparked intense interest this year during the Pacific Islands Leaders Forum and overshadowed the climate emergency looming over these particularly vulnerable nations.
The region has already become an essential part of geopolitics. In April, the Solomon Islands signed a controversial security agreement with China, upending long-standing alliances with Western powers.
Kamala Harris’s video intervention was a diplomatic success for the United States, as China had not previously been invited to a similar summit.
Harris said she and US President Joe Biden acknowledge that the Pacific may not have received enough attention in the past. “We will change that,” she promised, adding that the United States wanted to “strengthen our presence in the Pacific.”
The new US endeavour in the Pacific, backed by ten-year promises of $60 million annually to the Fisheries Agency, and the relaunch of the Peace Corps in the Pacific, reflects a desire to “open a new chapter,” according to Harris.
For his part, Fiji President Frank Bainimarama, Chairman of the Forum, stressed that the “climate change crisis” threatens the security and sovereignty of many Pacific countries.
