The Summit of 14 Pacific Island Nations hosted by the USA was held on 28-29 September 2022 in Washington. Independent foreign affairs experts believe that the overall theme of this gathering was the desire to link the Pacific into the Indo-Pacific strategy to contain China and develop a new alliance that would include a list of Pentagon’s backed projects like Five Eye, QUAD, AKUAS, Indo-Pacific Framework, and Indo-Pacific Armies Management seminars.
The overt agenda of the Summit was to discuss global warming, rising sea level, economic investment, natural disaster preparedness, maritime security, and China while the covert agenda of the gathering might be an attempt to install a US-led strategy all over maritime routes China has been using for its trade. The Summit was attended by the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, French Polynesia, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Caledonia, Palau, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and Wallis and Futuna and New Zealand, with Australia as co-host and observer.
The Washington Post reported the USA had planned to invest $860 million in expanded programmes to aid the islands while US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed his desire to establish a partnership between the USA and the Pacific, which would provide a “roadmap” for their future relationship.
I believe the Pacific, once the “maritime backyard” of the USA since the Second World War, constantly heavily dominated by US military presence yet completely ignored otherwise, now has become the centre stage for the Pentagon. These islands are always in contact with the USA but have yet not joined the US Indo-Pacific strategy because they don’t want to see China as the enemy.
The US rubrics for all times to come to remain the same, “shared commitment to enduring peace and security”. However, the Pacific island nations too appear unimpressed by this narrative and clearly demonstrate their hesitations towards enduring anything in order to get the US version of peace and stability. Nonetheless, the Pacific Islands up front register their concerns purely related to the existential threat they face due to global warming. The Pacific islands neither pledge their loyalty to US’ shared commitment nor are falling into the trap of becoming a US pawn to endure US peace in the region.
China on the contrary offers much more tangible yet Pacific Island Nations are still skeptical and avoid any clear static diplomatic ties with either China or the USA.
Indo-Pacific and Pacific islands are new theatres US allies have set for curtailing Chinese trade movements and establishing US maritime power to encircle China’s interests whenever it would be needed. The theatre is here and now we can do nothing but wait for when the curtain will unveil the first scene.
An 11-point “statement of vision committing to joint endeavors” was released as a Declaration at the end of the Summit that needs to be shared for analysis of what the US certainly wants to get out of this new move. Instead of adding all 11 points, I will share three points that can serve US interests in the future. They are sixth, seventh, and tenth on the list.
The Sixth point on the list says that participants resolve to protect the Blue Pacific and enhance the laws that govern it. The Seventh point says that participants resolve to maintain peace and security across the Blue Pacific Continent and the tenth point indicates that participants reaffirm their commitment to comprehensively address the legacies of conflict and the promotion of nuclear nonproliferation.
In the future, the USA and its allies like Australia and New Zealand can demand countries that participated in the Summit allow US allies to maximize their military presence in member countries for protecting the Blue Pacific, maintain peace and security across the Blue Pacific, and to play their role to comprehensively address the legacies of conflict in the region.
We know the USA is a master in creating a scene where any country or region becomes a “security issue” for the world as Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) and Afghanistan had a dirty bomb. By first creating a situation in which China can be painted as a “serious threat” to the region, the USA can enhance its presence in the Pacific islands by using the USA-Pacific Island Country Summit Declaration adopted on September 29, in Washington, DC.
The White House indicates that the USA is elevating broader and deeper engagement with the Pacific Islands as a priority of its foreign policy and I believe that this “deeper engagement “is another attempt to frustrate China which according to US President Joe Biden is the biggest threat to the USA and its allies. Targeting Chinese interests in Eastern Europe and African countries, placing the Taiwan issue again on the global stage, forming multiple alliances in the Indo-Pacific, and now reaching out to the Pacific islands, are some of the important moves of the Biden Administration to keep China on its toes.
China had been an active partner of the islands since 2006 when it held the first China–Pacific Island Countries Economic Development and Cooperation Forum in Fiji. Since then, China has invested more than $1.78 billion in aid to eight countries in the region and is the region’s second-largest trading partner with diplomatic ties with all countries.
It is interesting to add that in April this year the Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed it had signed a security agreement with the Solomon Islands. Foreign affairs experts are of the view that this development triggered urgency for the USA to reach unattended islands before China can sign similar agreements of security with other islands.
US-allied Australia and New Zealand focused on islands in their foreign policies around 2017 when Australia announced a “Pacific Step-up” as part of a white paper on foreign policy. The following year, New Zealand announced the “Pacific Reset” which focused on principles for delivering shared prosperity. Even the United Kingdom, half a world away, got involved, announcing its “Pacific Uplift” in 2019. Now the leader of NATO entered the game directly by holding a Summit in Washington. The US Strategic Framework for the Indo-Pacific, released in 2021, included the Pacific Islands region in the Framework.
The importance of the Pacific islands today for the USA can be judged by the statement of President Biden that he delivered at the Summit stating that the USA was a proud Pacific power and it will continue to be an active, engaged partner in the region while Vice-President President Kamala Harris was of the view that the history and the future of the Pacific Islands and the United States were inextricably linked.
I am of the view that Indo-Pacific and Pacific islands are new theatres US allies have set for curtailing Chinese trade movements and establishing US maritime power to encircle China’s interests whenever it would be needed. The theatre is here and now we can do nothing but wait for when the curtain will unveil the first scene.
