China’s ambitions in the Pacific are a concern for some Pacific Island leaders, US National Security Council Indo-Pacific Coordinator Kurt Campbell said on Thursday.
However, a growing US partnership with allies in the region aims to address issues such as climate change, health and technology links, he said.
Campbell spoke after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken hosted a meeting with foreign ministers from the Partners in the Blue Pacific — a group formed in June that includes the US, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the UK.
Photo: AFP
US officials briefing reporters on the meeting said that Canada and Germany intend to formally join the initiative, which seeks to coordinate assistance to the strategically vital region in the face of competition from China.
“As we’ve seen in some instances, clearly China has ambitions in the Pacific, some of which have caused concern among Pacific Island leaders,” Campbell said.
The group’s agenda would be guided by Pacific Island nations’ needs, he added.
“When we engage with Pacific Islanders, one of the first things that they say is that for us national security really involves our environment and how climate change is an existential issue for them,” Campbell said.
The Partners in the Blue Pacific event, held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, comes ahead of a summit US President Joe Biden plans to host with Pacific island leaders on Wednesday and Thursday next week.
The Biden administration has said that the summit reflects its commitment to Pacific Island nations, whose leaders said this month that Washington should accept their priorities, making climate change — not superpower competition — the most urgent security task.
Campbell said that the US, Australia and Japan are involved in a number of efforts to advance undersea cables in the Pacific.
Campbell said two of the initiatives the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue — the US, Japan, India and Australia — want to focus on in the Pacific are maritime domain awareness and increasing island states’ communication links with nations such as Japan, Australia and India.
“That can only be accomplished through the laying of ... undersea cables, and so I think the challenge is before us,” he said. “We think it’s important, and it will require financing and capacity, not just of any one state, but our combined efforts together.”
In a separate meeting, Blinken and his South Korean and Japanese counterparts affirmed a shared commitment to support Pacific Island nations.
A joint statement said that they pledged to look at ways to better help the island nations access climate finance, and reaffirmed support for their efforts to boost maritime security and fisheries protection.
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