Washington: Joe Biden will become the first American president to visit the Pacific Islands later this month, when he travels to Papua New Guinea for bilateral engagements and to attend the first US-Pacific Islands Summit, the White House announced on Tuesday.
In a statement, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that Biden will stop over in the island on his way from the G7 summit in Hiroshima to the Quad leaders’ summit in Sydney. “President Biden will meet with Prime Minister Marape of Papua New Guinea and other Pacific Island Forum leaders to follow up on the first-ever US–Pacific Island Summit in Washington, DC last fall.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too, will be in Papua New Guinea to meet Pacific Island Forum leaders at the same time and attend the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation. While the White House statement did not announce a meeting between the two leaders, Papua New Guinea’s prime minister James Marape had said earlier this month that he looked forward to welcoming Biden and Modi. “Papua New Guinea is ready to receive both President Biden and Prime Minister Modi. This is a historic first, and at the same time a ‘going forward’ futuristic meeting of global superpowers, in the biggest country in the Pacific,” Marape said.
The White House said Biden and Pacific Island leaders will discuss ways to deepen cooperation on challenges such as combating climate change, protecting maritime resources, and advancing resilient and inclusive economic growth”. “As a Pacific nation, the United States has deep historical and people-to-people ties with the Pacific Islands, and this visit – the first time a sitting US President has visited a Pacific Island country – further reinforces this critical partnership.”
The Pacific Islands have, in recent years, become a new site of geopolitical contestation between China on one hand, and the West on the other. With China and Solomon Islands agreeing on a security pact in early 2022, the US stepped up its diplomatic offensive in the region. Biden’s Indo-Pacific czar Kurt Campbell visited the region. The US, along with Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and Japan launched the Partners in the Blue Pacific initiative. India is an observer in the group.
And then White House hosted all Pacific Island leaders for a historic summit in Washington DC in September 2022 — this was the first time they were invited to the President’s residence for a formal summit. Issuing a declaration on US-Pacific partnership, the participating countries, in an acknowledgment of the biggest concern of the Pacific Island countries, agreed to tackle climate crisis as “the highest priority of our partnership, for it remains the single greatest existential threat to the livelihoods, security, traditional and customary practices, and wellbeing of people in the Pacific region”.
In addition, in an acknowledgment of American security concerns, the declaration said, “In promoting peace and security, we recognise the importance of international law as reflected in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), including on freedom of navigation and overflight. We will oppose all efforts to undermine the territorial integrity and sovereignty of any country, large or small.”
Last year, responding to a question from HT on how he saw the role of India in the Pacific Islands, Campbell had said, “India is an observer in Partners of the Blue Pacific. They have been engaging with us. They have strong and deep historical ties in the Pacific, in Fiji, and elsewhere. We look forward to working more closely with India in the Pacific. One of the things I have been most gratified by is the close coordination with India in the Indo-Pacific on a range of issues, including the island nations. I look forward to that cooperation continuing.”
The simultaneous visit of Biden and Modi is expected to intensify cooperation in this theatre of the Indo-Pacific.
