A senior US diplomat was yesterday to travel to Samoa on a multi-leg trip to Pacific Island countries intended to demonstrate Washington’s re-engagement with a region in which China has been extending its influence, the US Department of State said.
US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman was to travel to Samoa and then Tonga, where she would become the most senior US official to visit, before attending World War II commemorations in the Solomon Islands.
The US is concerned about China’s ambitions to extend its military presence in the Pacific, after it earlier this year struck a security pact with the Solomon Islands.
Photo: Reuters
Tonga has external debt of US$195 million, or 35.9 percent of GDP, of which two-thirds is owed to the Export–Import Bank of China, its budget showed.
Sherman is to discuss plans to open US embassies in Tonga and the Solomon Islands, as well as the return of the US Peace Corps aid program, the state department said.
A high-level US delegation to the Solomon Islands to commemorate a major World War II battle between the US and Japan would proceed despite disruptions to tourism caused by the sudden cancelation of many commercial flights, US officials said.
The suspension of flights to Honiara by Fiji Airways over safety concerns would cause dozens of US travelers to miss tomorrow’s commemoration, a tourism official said.
Fiji Airways is one of two airlines regularly servicing the Solomon Islands.
Sherman and US Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy, whose fathers served in the Solomon Islands, would attend the US government ceremony for the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Guadalcanal.
The anniversary was expected to bring a tourism boom to the Solomon Islands, which last month reopened its borders after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The loss of tourism income during border closures across the Pacific islands had a severe impact on the region’s fragile economies.
Fiji Airways said in a statement that it had suspended its flights to the Solomon Islands because of concerns about the condition of the runway in Honiara.
Solomon Islands tourism officials said the suspension was “a blow,” adding that they were trying to reroute tourists booked to attend the World War II events.
Tourism Solomons sales head Fiona Teama said the events would go ahead, although a tour group traveling from the US would miss the commemoration because they would not arrive in time.
US and Australian government aircraft carrying officials would continue to land at Honiara’s airport, she said.
Sherman is also scheduled to visit Australia and New Zealand before returning to the US.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of