Prime Minister Hu’akavameiliku returns to Tonga having been away firstly at the Rugby World Cup in France to greet and encourage the Tongan team; then went on to the United Nations General Assembly in New York; and last week attended the Summit of Pacific Leaders hosted by President Joe Biden in Washington, DC.
The 2-day summit which took place on Monday and Tuesday, September 25 & 26, was the second of its kind in two years.
Discussions revolved around regional priorities and cooperation including the climate change crisis, advancing economic growth, promotion of sustainable developments, strengthening health securities, countering of illegal, unreported fishing, and expanding of people-to-people ties.
But the Pacific Island leaders has called for tangible outcomes from the summit, and that it should not be just a charm offensive from the US in response to China’s inroads in the region.
“For the Pacific, we do not have time to concern ourselves with geo-strategic posturing, positioning and influence or to sail to the narrative of others,” Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown said this week.
“We will partner with all who are willing to engage with us on our terms and in alignment with our priorities,” said Brown, who is also chairman this year of the Pacific Islands Forum, an 18-nation regional grouping.
U.S. interest in Pacific island nations seemed to have galvanized after Beijing and the Solomon Islands signed a security pact that the U.S. and allies such as Australia fear could lead to a Chinese military presence in a region they consider crucial to their defense and security.
Since then the U.S. has agreed to increase its financial and economic assistance for Micronesia, Marshall Islands and Palau – three North Pacific countries that delegate their defense to Washington under longstanding compacts of free association.
In the South Pacific, the U.S has added to its diplomatic presence by opening embassies in the Solomon Islands and Tonga, but both have limited staffing and no ambassadors. Last month the United States Agency for International Development opened an expanded aid mission headquartered in Fiji.
The US will also be opening embassies in Vanuatu and Kiribati.
Recent U.S. rhetoric about the Pacific has been filled with buzzwords such as engagement, partnership and “showing up.” However, over the past two decades it is Chinese aid and Chinese state companies, not American aid and companies, that have come to occupy a leading role in meeting the infrastructure needs of economically lagging island nations.
Before the Washington Summit, Brown said: “We are looking for more tangible engagement,” in areas such as trade, air links and easier access to climate finance. “So we look forward to this summit coming up with optimism.”
Washington, expressed disappointment at the absence of the Solomon Prime Minister, Manasseh Sogavare, who declined the invitation to be at the Summit, saying there was more important things for him to do in Honiara than attend the Summit.
Vanuatu’s Prime Minister was unable also to attend as there was a Vote of No Confidence coming up in Port Vila.