Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled this week to Papua New Guinea, a Pacific island nation of roughly 10 million people, to sign a bundle of security and maritime awareness agreements. At the time of writing, the full scope of those deals is still a mystery. The basic points, though, have long been known: The United States will receive additional access to PNG airfields and ports, the PNG government gets $45 million in U.S. assistance (including military equipment for its maritime forces), and the U.S. Coast Guard will be permitted to patrol the PNG coast alongside the PNG defense force.

The deal is part of a list of accords Washington is in the process of concluding with other island nations in the vast, blue expanse of the Pacific Ocean. U.S. presidential envoy Joseph Yun told Reuters that the Biden administration is finalizing security pacts with Palau and Micronesia as well, an extension of soon-to-be-expired Compact of Free Association agreements that gift the U.S. veto power over the islands’ foreign policy in exchange for a number of incentives from the U.S., such as visa-free travel and defense commitments. A similar accord with the Marshall Islands is scheduled to be signed over the next several weeks.