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No 2 US diplomat ends Pacific tour to bolster regional ties as Taiwan flap rankles Beijing
After Beijing envoy demands ‘correction’, Pacific Islands Forum scraps Taiwan reference from its annual summit’s final communique
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Khushboo Razdanin Washington
Washington’s No 2 diplomat concluded his Pacific tour on Friday with a focus on tensions in the South China Sea and boosting Nato’s ties in the Indo-Pacific vis-à-vis Beijing amid controversy over support for Taiwan at a high-profile regional gathering.
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US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell had been travelling in the strategically vital region since Wednesday for the Pacific Islands Forum leaders’ summit in Tonga. The US is one of the PIF’s more than 20 dialogue partners, alongside China, the European Union, France and Britain.
Campbell on Thursday attended the opening ceremony of America’s newest embassy, located in Port Vila, Vanuatu, and on Friday he met with New Zealand’s foreign minister, Bede Corry, in Auckland.
In a joint statement after their meeting, Campbell and Corry expressed “grave concern about dangerous, destabilising and provocative actions in the South China Sea, including by Chinese vessels towards Philippine vessels”.
The envoys recognised “the increasing connectivity between Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific security and stability” and “welcomed the deepening coordination among Nato and Indo-Pacific partners”.
The remarks built on the Nato summit in Washington in July, when the US announced that Secretary of State Antony Blinken would meet this year with the foreign ministers of New Zealand, Australia, Japan and South Korea – the transatlantic security alliance’s Indo-Pacific partners.
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