{"id":75409,"date":"2022-09-27T12:30:54","date_gmt":"2022-09-27T02:30:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=75409"},"modified":"2022-09-27T16:23:45","modified_gmt":"2022-09-27T06:23:45","slug":"what-to-expect-from-bidens-summit-with-pacific-island-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/what-to-expect-from-bidens-summit-with-pacific-island-leaders\/","title":{"rendered":"What to expect from Biden\u2019s summit with Pacific island leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

When the White House announced<\/a> that President Joe Biden will host the US \u2013 Pacific Island Country Summit on 28\u201329 September, it noted that it\u2019s the \u2018first ever\u2019 such meeting. This both focused attention on the importance the US attaches to repositioning its place in the Pacific island region and gave a Johnny-come-lately look for a country that has been a power in the region for more than 150 years.<\/p>\n

Along with Australia\u2019s \u2018Pacific step-up<\/a>\u2019, New Zealand\u2019s \u2018Pacific reset<\/a>\u2019 and the UK\u2019s \u2018Pacific uplift<\/a>\u2019, the summit is intended to show that Washington has recognised the need to drastically renovate relations with the Pacific islands to respond to the more muscular influence of China in the region under President Xi Jinping.<\/p>\n

The road to the White House began with the 2019 \u2018Pacific pledge<\/a>\u2019, which significantly elevated US policy on, and financing for, the region, but these efforts were embedded in the broader strategic context of an Indo-Pacific strategy with China as its focus.<\/p>\n

The novelty of Biden\u2019s summit, however, contrasts with the way other states have demonstrated their interest in the region at the highest level.<\/p>\n

Australia and New Zealand, of course, have had annual summits with the regional leadership through the Pacific Islands Forum since 1971.<\/p>\n

Other states<\/a> have also had meetings to cement closer relations with the Pacific islands. Japan has held triennial iterations of its Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting since 1997. There have been five France\u2013Oceania summits since 2002. The China \u2013 Pacific Island Countries Economic Development and Cooperation Forum has met three times since it was launched in 2006.<\/p>\n

Adding to the apparent tardiness of the Biden summit, the US has had a recurrent opportunity for more than 40 years to meet with the regional heads of government.<\/p>\n

The Pacific Islands Conference of Leaders has offered 12 occasions for a US-based summit since it was founded by Fiji\u2019s Prime Minister Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara and Hawaii Governor George Ariyosh in 1980. The secretariat for the conference is the Pacific Islands Development Program located in the East\u2013West Center at the University of Hawaii.<\/p>\n

The most recent meeting<\/a> of the conference was held in Honolulu earlier this month. In addition to its role of giving direction to the Pacific Islands Development Program, it served to rehearse the key issues to bring to the White House summit. The islands\u2019 agenda was further workshopped by leaders\u2019 conference participants when they met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly last week.<\/p>\n

The most important of these meetings was the one convened by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken<\/a> of the Partners in the Blue Pacific<\/a> initiative launched a few months ago by the US, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the UK. Like legislative underpinnings<\/a> for the US policy change (the BLUE Pacific Act), the name for this informal association seeks to identify with the Pacific Islands Forum\u2019s 2050 strategy for the Blue Pacific continent<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The meeting included all the Pacific Islands Forum members then in New York as well as Canada, Germany, India and South Korea. Discussions centred on ways to align the US-led initiative with the forum\u2019s strategy, addressing specific projects in areas such humanitarian risk management and support for accessing climate-change financing. (Canada<\/a> subsequently announced that it would join the Partners in the Blue Pacific and Germany is expected to follow.)<\/p>\n

Perhaps encouraged by the positive developments in Australia and the US regarding the region\u2019s climate-change-mitigation demands, the Marshall Islands and Tuvalu used their time on the global stage to push a proposal to address adaptation needs.<\/p>\n

Building on the Pacific Islands Forum\u2019s 2021 declaration<\/a> on the need to protect maritime boundaries in the face of rising sea levels, Tuvalu\u2019s Prime Minister Kausea Natano\u00a0and the Marshall Islands\u2019 President David Kabua unveiled a \u2018rising nations initiative<\/a>\u2019.<\/p>\n

The island states will expect the White House summit to attract diplomatic and financial support for a proposed global partnership that aims to preserve the sovereignty, heritage and rights of Pacific islanders through practical measures to adapt to climate change.<\/p>\n

Broader geopolitical and security concerns, including those of the Pacific pledge, were also canvassed during the UN week. The Quad countries of Australia, India, Japan and the US held a foreign ministers\u2019 meeting\u00a0which reaffirmed a commitment to the \u2018free and open Indo-Pacific<\/a>\u2019 concept as well as cooperation on food and energy security and climate change.<\/p>\n

At the same time, but half a world away, Exercise Cartwheel<\/a> was taking place in Fiji\u2019s Nausori Highlands. This tactical field training exercise was unrelated to, but somewhat reflective of, the Quad\u2019s rationale and membership of the Partners in the Blue Pacific. Led by Fiji and the US, the exercise also included defence personnel from Australia, New Zealand and the UK.<\/p>\n

Exercise Cartwheel stands as a practical demonstration of the hopes the Biden summit holds for closer security ties with the region as against the constraints for achieving that directly. Although neither was included, the only other Pacific defence forces that might have participated in the exercise were those of Papua New Guinea and Tonga.<\/p>\n

This does much to explain why the White House agenda will be focused on meeting the region\u2019s security objectives as expressed in the Pacific Islands Forum\u2019s Boe Declaration<\/a> and 2050 Blue Pacific strategy.<\/p>\n

The Biden administration will have two factors going in its favour for aligning US policy with the Blue Pacific strategy. Rejoining<\/a> the Paris agreement on climate change brought the Biden administration credibility by removing a significant Donald Trump\u2013era irritation.<\/p>\n

Second, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has highlighted the weakness of the UN\u2019s collective security guarantees against aggression. Beijing\u2019s unwillingness to condemn the invasion has reinforced to some extent some emergent regional apprehensions<\/a> over China.<\/p>\n

Given all the high-level preparations and agenda pretesting for the White House summit, the Biden administration will be hoping that the meeting smoothly delivers a regional seal of approval for Washington\u2019s new policy directions in the Pacific islands.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, there are issues that could derail the expected lovefest. The Partners in the Blue Pacific initiative is investing heavily in a regional architecture that remains fractured. While the US doesn\u2019t have a direct role in the Pacific Islands Forum, it does have a dominant place in Micronesian subregional affairs.<\/p>\n

The Marshall Islands threw a late pre-summit spanner<\/a> into the ongoing negotiations with America\u2019s three Micronesian allies\u2014the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshalls and Palau\u2014to renew their compacts of free association with the US. Strains within the forum have revolved around the Micronesian subregion for nearly two years. Washington needs the three states to lend a positive voice to its regional initiative.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the White House announced that President Joe Biden will host the US \u2013 Pacific Island Country Summit on 28\u201329 September, it noted that it\u2019s the \u2018first ever\u2019 such meeting. 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