US and Pacific Island States Agree to ‘Declaration of Partnership’ — Radio Free Asia

Updated at 12:25 a.m. EST on 2022-09-29

Leaders of Pacific island nations have agreed on the text of a joint statement of partnership with the United States, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday at the opening of a two-day summit. days in Washington.

The announcement came after reports that the Solomon Islands planned not to sign an 11-point declaration at the summit, the first such meeting with leaders from the region hosted by the White House. In April, the Solomon Islands signed a secret agreement security pact with chinaraising concerns among the United States and Pacific allies that Beijing may be considering establishing a military presence in the South Pacific.

Blinken said the United States is committed to working closely with leaders from 12 Pacific island nations present on issues such as climate change, fisheries and maritime security in the Indo-Pacific region.

“I am particularly pleased, as we begin our conversations, as we begin these two days, with President [Joe] Biden joining us tomorrow, that we have also come together around a statement of partnership between the United States and the Pacific,” Blinken said.

The statement “shows that we have a common vision,” he said in comments posted on YouTube. “It will give us a roadmap for the work we will do in the future.”

Blinken did not specify the content of the final version of the statement. The State Department did not immediately respond to requests for copies of the text.

The summit comes in the middle of a renewed attention in the United States on the Pacific and concerns in Washington about China’s growing influence in the region that grew after Beijing signed its new security pact with the Solomons five months ago.

Brian Harding, senior Asia expert for the U.S. Institute for Peace, said the summit was important primarily because it’s the first time Pacific island leaders have been invited for talks at a dedicated forum. in the USA.

“Previous meetings have taken place on the sidelines of other meetings in Hawaii or the United Nations General Assembly,” Harding told Radio Free Asia (RFA), an online news service affiliated with BenarNews.

“It is unfortunate that so much attention has been paid to this particular statement, because what Pacific Islanders want from this statement is a broad and open conversation.”

Harding said the focus on the statement could be due to Beijing’s failure to secure a similar regional joint statement during Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s Pacific tour in April, which resulted in the secret agreement with the Solomons.

But after decades of reduced attention to the Pacific region, “there is concern that the United States is trying to move a little too fast,” Harding said.

Mihai Sora, a Pacific analyst at Australia’s Lowy Institute, said the summit didn’t need announcements of major new US commitments to be of value.

“I think the summit is more about building credibility and building relationships with Pacific leaders, which is absolutely critical to American re-engagement,” he told BenarNews. “It would be valuable for Pacific leaders to feel that they have that direct access and that direct relationship with someone like Biden.”

Pacific superpower competition

The agreement on a joint declaration marks a potential victory for the United States in a vast maritime region where Washington and Beijing are vying for influence and after small island states rejected pressure from China for a far-reaching pact.

In a telephone press briefing on the eve of the summit, a senior Biden administration official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, said the joint agreement is “really about a bigger vision. wide in which the United States and the Pacific island nations fit. to joint efforts that are important.

Biden’s Pacific summit is meant to show deeper U.S. commitment to a vast, economically backward region that has increasingly looked to China to meet its development needs, officials and officials said. analysts.

In two decades, China has become an important source of infrastructure, loans and aid for Pacific island nations as it seeks to diplomatically isolate Taiwan and win regional allies in international organizations such as the United Nations. United.

Some analysts say Beijing also wants a military presence in the Pacific as a challenge to US dominance. The pact signed with the Solomon Islands would allow Beijing to send security forces to protect Chinese interests in these islands. But 10 Pacific nations have rebuffed the Chinese government’s attempt to get them to sign on to its vision for the region.

The Solomon Islands government has opposed signing the declaration proposed by the United States, Australian state broadcaster ABC reported on Wednesday, without citing a source.

US officials are also expected to release a national Pacific strategy at the summit, along with other financial commitments. Biden is due to meet Pacific island leaders for dinner to wrap up the summit on Thursday night.

RFA and BenarNews jointly produced this report. It has been updated to include some details from the first day of the summit.