The White House announced an additional $810 million in funding for the Pacific Islands as President Joe Biden‘s administration seeks to counter China‘s influence in the region.
The announcement is part of Biden’s unveiling of the first U.S.-Pacific Islands partnership strategy amid the inaugural White House and State Department-hosted Pacific Islands Country Summit.
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Under the Declaration on U.S.-Pacific Partnership, the United States will recognize the Cook Islands and Niue, name former Ambassador to Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Tonga, and Tuvalu Frankie Reed as the first U.S. envoy to the Pacific Islands Forum, open a USAID Pacific regional mission in Fiji by September 2023, and send Peace Corps volunteers to Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, and Vanuatu, according to a senior administration official.
“I think we recognize that for us to be effective to deal with, in many respects, with the daunting challenges of the Pacific — climate change, health concerns, education, training, jobs, challenges associated with recovering from COVID, overfishing, unexploded ordinance from the Second World War — the list is long,” the official told reporters. “For us to be able to grapple and deal with those effectively, it not only required the United States to work more constructively across every element of our government, but also required us working closely with allies and partners.”
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The strategy coincides with the new Partners of the Blue Pacific initiative, led by the U.S., Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, and will dovetail with the U.S. Indo-Pacific guiding document.
The official downplayed concerns regarding Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, who rankled Western allies and partners by formalizing relations with China, which included accepting financial assistance and signing a security agreement.
“The Solomons have been here,” the official said. “They were here at the Partnership of the Blue Pacific, and they’ve been deeply engaged in our efforts over the last couple of days, and we expect them to be actively engaged in our meetings over the next few days.”
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Biden will speak at the two-day summit Thursday afternoon before entertaining leaders at the White House Thursday evening.
