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US-China relations
ChinaDiplomacy

Joe Biden to meet Pacific Island nations as leaders seek to ‘capitalise’ on US-China attention

  • Summit between American president and region’s leaders will be second in a year as Washington seeks to counter Beijing’s push for clout
  • Countries of geopolitically vital region expected to voice concerns including climate change and economic recovery following pandemic

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US President Joe Biden disembarks from Air Force One in New York on Sunday ahead of the United Nations General Assembly. Photo: AP
Khushboo Razdanin New York
A second summit between US President Joe Biden and Pacific Island nations is slated to take place next week in Washington, a top official at an intergovernmental group from the region announced on Monday, underscoring the outsize influence wielded by the small but geopolitically vital countries of Oceania.
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“Currently our senior officials are in negotiations with Washington over the outcomes that we would like to see when we meet with President Biden next week,” said Henry Puna, secretary general of the Pacific Island Forum, during an event hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in New York.

Puna expressed hope “that those outcomes will translate into concrete actions moving forward” because the Pacific region faced several challenges apart from climate change such as economic recovery following the coronavirus pandemic.

“Having small economies, we’ve been hit really hard with the border closures,” he said. But it is something that we’re very much looking forward to engaging with the US. And I’m sure that there will be very positive outcomes from our engagement.”

Henry Puna, a former Cook Islands prime minister, is secretary general of the Pacific Islands Forum. Photo: Reuters
Henry Puna, a former Cook Islands prime minister, is secretary general of the Pacific Islands Forum. Photo: Reuters

Acknowledging an increasingly polarised world dominated by geopolitical competition between the US and China, Puna observed that a period of “strategic neglect” for the Pacific Island region had been replaced by “strategic manipulation”.

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“We must realise that the strategic interest and attention we enjoy today will not last forever,” he said. “We must capitalise on it in a manner that will ensure sustainable gains for our region and for our people, for decades to come.”

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