Fiji’s Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka opened a joint press conference with Lloyd Austin at the weekend in a luxury hotel on his country’s west coast. He couldn’t resist making a brief quip about how extraordinary the US defence secretary’s visit was.
“We all pray it’s not an indication that we are looking at some dangerous years ahead,” the prime minister declared, with a small smile. “We are here to talk about peace, and how we guard, protect and promote that peace.”
Mr Rabuka’s comment neatly captured the mix of anticipation and trepidation that Pacific officials and leaders feel as they navigate the cross-currents created by major powers intent on entrenching their regional positions.
Mr Austin had just become the first US defence secretary to visit the Pacific island nation, and his arrival in Fiji was a sign of the times.
As China’s military might continues to swell, the United States is responding by expanding its military presence across the Pacific, swivelling its focus back to countries and territories that its planners and strategists have long ignored.
This isn’t just in Melanesian nations like Fiji. The US is also rapidly expanding its arsenal and bases across Micronesia, where it already has an entrenched military presence.
A smiling Mr Rabuka, sporting a tie emblazoned with the Stars and Stripes, praised Mr Austin and called his visit a “milestone”. But Pacific leaders like Mr Rabuka also know that protecting the peace is easier said than done.
Compacts of Free Association
The Compacts of Free Association, or COFA, provide economic support for Palau, the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia. In exchange, the nations will allow the U.S. military exclusive access to their land, water and airspace and the right to deny Beijing access to their ports and expansive territorial waters.
But six months after the compacts were passed, extending $7 billion in economic aid over 20 years to the three Pacific Island nations, key provisions still languished. Palau’s access to postal service, aviation security, national weather service and federal banking insurance was set to run out on September 30. The temporary spending package finalized Wednesday contained an extension of those services, Representative Ed Case, a Democrat, said in a statement to VOA.
In doing so, said Case, “The U.S. restates its commitment to the people of Palau as a full partner in a shared future and to assisting Palau in resisting the dependence upon and coercion by the PRC that has marked the PRC’s efforts to dominate the countries of the Pacific.” PRC is an abbreviation for the People’s Republic of China.
“Reassuring the people of Palau that they [the services] will continue is an important message from the people of the United States to the people of Palau,” Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr. said in an interview with VOA on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.
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