Biden’s Pacific front
President’s PNG visit aims to counter China’s influence
NEW YORK: Joe Biden will this month become the first sitting US president to visit a Pacific Island nation in a historic move to step up America’s efforts to counter China’s influence in the region.
The President will visit Papua New Guinea on May 22 after attending the G7 leaders’ summit in Japan and before arriving in Sydney for the Quad leaders’ meeting.
As China has sought to bolster its presence in the Pacific, including through a security pact with the Solomon Islands, the US and Papua New Guinea started negotiating their own defence co-operation agreement, although it is not clear whether this will be signed on Mr Biden’s trip.
The President is due to meet with Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape and other Pacific Island Forum leaders, having welcomed them to Washington DC for the first time last year.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed the trip would form part of Mr Biden’s first presidential visit to Australia.
“The leaders will discuss ways to deepen co-operation on challenges critical to the region and to the United States such as combating climate change, protecting maritime resources, and advancing resilient and inclusive economic growth,” she said in a statement.
“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.”
Mr Marape revealed this month that Mr Biden was due to visit, saying he was “honoured that he has fulfilled his promise to visit our country” made during meetings in the US last year.
Papua New Guinea Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko told the ABC last month that the defence pact was close to being finalised, along with a similar security agreement with Australia.
“We have an understanding to ensure that our defence capabilities are enhanced through training, infrastructure, asset improvement,” he said. “It’s about building up our capabilities. That’s very important.”
After talks in Hawaii in February, a US State Department spokesman said the deal would “enhance security cooperation and further strengthen our bilateral relationship, improve the capacity of the PNG Defence Force and increase stability and security in the region”.