“The United States is a Pacific nation, and we share longstanding historic and cultural ties with our Pacific Island neighbors,” said Daniel Kritenbrink, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. “U.S. prosperity and security depend on the Pacific region remaining free and open, prosperous, secure and resilient.”
Assistant Secretary Kritenbrink said the Pacific Islands face significant challenges to their security and prosperity, including from climate change and economic shocks and from problematic behavior by an increasingly aggressive Peoples’ Republic of China.
“We are not in the business of forcing countries to choose – neither in the Pacific nor anywhere else. But we do want to ensure that countries in the Pacific have a choice and the ability to make their own sovereign decisions free from coercion,” he said.
To that end, the United States will provide more than $7 billion in funding for key agreements and new programs in the Pacific Island region. That includes funding for the Compacts of Free Association - an agreement with Palau, the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia - that allows exclusive military access for the United States in return for economic support. Those Compacts, said Assistant Defense Secretary for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Ely Ratner are of utmost importance:
“These agreements provide assured access for our operations, and they prevent would be adversaries from accessing sovereign land, airspace, and territorial waters. The bottom line is that the Compacts help secure a part of the Indo-Pacific that is larger than the continental United States ... We also know that the PRC is drawing from a range of coercive tools in an attempt to erode longstanding U.S. partnerships and advance China’s own influence.”
USAID Asian Bureau Assistant Administrator Michael Schiffer said USAID offers Pacific Island countries a different way:
“A tailored development model responsive to their needs and their aspirations, rooted in economic trade and integration, in inclusivity and locally led solutions, and in the democratic values that positively transform our shared planet.”
Meeting these goals, said Assistant Administrator Schiffer, depends on enhancing cooperation with local communities, individual countries, as well as Pacific-led organizations.
The United States will continue to deepen its diplomatic, defense and development engagement with the Pacific Islands region. As Assistant Administrator Schiffer declared, “Enduring presence matters.”
