WASHINGTON - President Joe Biden's administration on Wednesday rolled out the red carpet for Pacific Island leaders in the face of rising Chinese influence in the region and said it expected a united front, despite friction with one nation - the Solomon Islands.
In a first-of-a-kind summit in Washington, the United States promised greater aid and diplomatic engagement on issues from maritime security to pandemic recovery and climate change, which threatens to devastate many of the low-lying islands.
Opening two days of meetings with 12 leaders and representatives of two other nations, Secretary of State Antony Blinken welcomed the leaders to lunch and assured them, "You can count on the United States partnering with you."
In a veiled reference to China's growing assertiveness around the region and across Asia, Mr Blinken called for "preserving a free and open Indo-Pacific where every nation - no matter how big, no matter how small - has the right to choose its own path".
He said the summit would release a document, adding, "We've agreed on it, and it will give us a roadmap for the work that we're doing in the future."
The Washington Post quoted US officials as saying the Biden administration would announce that it would invest more than US$860 million (S$1.2 billion) in expanded programmes to aid the islands at the two-day summit, on top of more than US$1.5 billion provided in the past decade.
The White House had no immediate comment on the funding figure, but a US official said the newspaper’s reporting that all the visiting leaders had endorsed an 11-point statement of vision committing to joint endeavors was accurate.
Mr Blinken's statement came a day after Australia's ABC reported that the Solomon Islands privately communicated that it would not sign off on the statement, depriving the summit of consensus. But State Department spokesman Ned Price said discussions have made "tremendous progress".
The Solomon Islands in April signed a secretive security pact with China, defying warnings from the US, as well as Australia and New Zealand, which are participating in Mr Biden's summit as observers.
Solomon Islands leader Manasseh Sogavare, accused of creeping authoritarianism, told the United Nations last week his tiny country has been "vilified" and "will not be coerced into choosing sides".
Western officials and analysts fear that China will use the Solomon Islands as a base to expand militarily into the Pacific or to pressure Taiwan, a self-governing democracy claimed by China.
China has stepped up its presence across the Pacific Islands, pouring in infrastructure spending, ramping up official visits and training law enforcement.
"Perhaps to a greater extent than any other geographic area, the Pacific Islands offer China a low-investment, high-reward opportunity to score symbolic, strategic and tactical victories in pursuit of its global agenda," said a recent report by a study group under the US Institute of Peace.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Weng Wenbin, asked about Mr Biden's summit, said that Pacific Island nations are sovereign and have the right to build relations with any country.
"Growing relations with the Pacific Island countries is not about seeking a sphere of influence and does not target any third party," he told reporters.
Mr Biden will meet the leaders on Thursday, a personal touch that US officials hope will help reestablish Washington's preeminence after long taking for granted a region the US has dominated since the end of World War II.
As part of a new strategy, the US will appoint its first-ever envoy to focus on the Pacific Islands and is adding three more diplomatic missions in the region, bringing the total from six to nine. AFP, REUTERS
