Biden summit: Pacific wants own strategy, not US plan for the region
Thursday, 29 September 2022
Pacific leaders are hopeful they will be able to work with United States President Joe Biden on their own strategy, rather than have the White House develop a plan for the island nations.
The sentiment was shared as the first US summit with Pacific leaders got under way in Washington on Thursday.
Biden should accept priorities for the Pacific, and this includes making climate change - not the US-China superpower competition - the most urgent security task, the leaders said in a joint statement.
Pacific Islands Forum Secretary-General Henry Puna said he was confident 'that we can, and we will secure and build a partnership supporting our vision and ambition for the 2050 Blue Pacific Continent regional strategy”.
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The 2050 strategy was supported by island nations and territories at the recent forum summit in Fiji and the Pacific Leaders Conference in Hawaii two weeks ago.
Fourteen Pacific nations have sent their leaders to Washington, with representatives from Nauru and Vanuatu, while New Zealand, Australia and the forum are there as observers.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Biden’s Special Envoy for Climate, John Kerry, met the Pacific delegations on Thursday to discuss the “most pressing issues for the region”.
The US-China competition for influence in the Pacific has intensified this year, after China signed a security agreement with the Solomon Islands, prompting warnings of a militarisation of the region.
The deal allows Solomons’ Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare to call on Beijing at any time for policing and security assistance.
The US plans to unveil a detailed new strategy specifically for the Pacific following the two-day summit, a White House official told reporters.
Sogavare said his government would not sign the declaration.
White House Indo-Pacific co-ordinator Kurt Campbell said the meeting would also focus on maritime security and the island nations' communications links with Japan, Australia and India.
The US and its allies New Zealand, Australia, Japan and Britain formed a group in June – Partners in the Blue Pacific – to counter China's push in the region.
President David Panuelo, of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), said increased engagement between the Pacific and Washington was 'very much welcome”.
But Panuelo said the Pacific wants China and the US to 'compete in a healthy manner to maintain peace in the vulnerable region”.
“Climate change will be a bigger challenge than the Second World War because it is like pulling teeth for low-lying island states to access support from international climate funds,” he said.
Blinken pledged NZ$8.4 million for the Resilient Blue Economies programme to support sustainable fisheries, agriculture and tourism in the Pacific.
The assistance is part of Washington’s aid and development commitments of NZ$1.4 billion, with $1b of the Economic Assistance Agreement, to be spread over 10 years and much of it will go towards the South Pacific Tuna Treaty.
The French territories were excluded from the meeting for protocol reasons, a decision that was met with criticism.
'When the United States invites our region we want to be inclusive of all the members of the Pacific Island Forum as a family,' Panuelo, who is also chairperson of the Pacific Leaders Conference, said.
He said the leaders had been working on a summit declaration that would focus on human-centred development, tackling climate change, geopolitics and security of the Pacific, and commerce, industry and trade ties.
But Panuelo told reporters the “vision statement” ran into problems this week when the US State Department demanded the removal of language that Washington addresses the Marshall Islands’ nuclear issue.
Panelo said every nation would do what was in their best interests.
“But we call on the superpowers when they come in and talk to the Pacific Island countries that they keep with us on the terms of the issues that are most important for our region.
“Yes, we have our own national interests, and possibly differing views and perspectives on important issues, but we have mutually agreed regional interests, and Pacific regionalism can only happen in a safe space for us to dialogue,” Panuelo said.
The leaders will meet government agencies and business leaders to discuss how to improve economic and commercial links with the US.
They will also hold talks with Biden on the strategic importance of the Pacific, climate change, pandemic response, economic recovery and maritime security.
The leaders will later join President Biden at the White House for dinner. The summit ends on Friday.