US steps up Pacific push to counter China

Washington: The Trump administration said it is expanding its diplomatic, economic and security engagement across the Pacific Islands to counter China’s growing influence in a region it described as strategically vital to US national security.

Michael G. DeSombre, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, told the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific that the State Department had made the Pacific one of its top priorities.

“This is an area that is receiving tremendous focus from the State Department,” DeSombre said.

He said Washington’s strategy centred on strengthening the resilience of Pacific Island nations while offering an alternative to China’s expanding economic and strategic footprint.

“The first one is trying to build up economic resilience,” DeSombre said. “Really working with the Pacific Islands to figure out ways that we can get more American or other Western allied investments into these countries.”

Congresswoman Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen of American Samoa said Pacific Island nations sit between the United States and the Indo-Pacific but continue to face increasing Chinese influence through infrastructure financing and rising debt.

She pointed to China’s expanding presence in Fiji, Tonga, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu and asked what Washington was doing to help reduce the islands’ dependence on Beijing.

DeSombre said one major initiative involved expanding secure communications infrastructure.

“We’re also really deploying large amounts of foreign assistance to help with various infrastructure and communication, subsea cables being a great example,” he said.

He added that the United States was working with Australia and Japan to ensure Pacific nations were connected through secure undersea communications links that did not rely on U.S. adversaries.

Another priority, he said, was increasing high-level American engagement across the region.

“We are, after all, a Pacific nation,” DeSombre said. “We want to ensure that we are part of the Pacific and that they know that we’re part of the Pacific.”

He cited what he described as encouraging political developments in the Solomon Islands, saying the country’s new leadership was reassessing ties with Beijing and looking to work with “traditional security partners.”

Congressman James Moylan of Guam highlighted the growing role of the US Coast Guard in supporting Pacific Island nations and countering illegal fishing, drug trafficking and other transnational crimes.

DeSombre said Washington was increasing Coast Guard deployments across the region.

“My understanding is that we are moving from two to four Coast Guard cutters in Guam,” he said.

He added that the United States was also considering expanding Coast Guard operations in Australia and had recently deployed additional cutters to Subic Bay in the Philippines.

DeSombre said ship-rider agreements with Pacific Island nations had become an important tool for helping local authorities police their exclusive economic zones against illegal fishing and narcotics trafficking.

He also stressed Guam’s strategic importance.

“Guam is an important gateway to the Pacific,” he said. “We are a Pacific nation, and Guam is part of us being a Pacific nation.”

The Pacific Islands have become an increasingly important arena in strategic competition between the United States and China. Beijing has expanded its diplomatic presence, infrastructure investment and security engagement across the region in recent years, prompting Washington and its allies to intensify their own outreach.

The United States has responded by strengthening partnerships with Pacific Island governments, expanding maritime security cooperation, investing in digital infrastructure and increasing its military and Coast Guard presence to reinforce a free and open Indo-Pacific.

IANS