Help us take on China, islanders urge Navy
Palau has become a target for Beijing’s regional ambitions, leading its president to ask for help
The Royal Navy’s Carrier Strike Group would be welcome to visit Palau when it deploys to the Indo-pacific this year, as the island counters growing Chinese intimidation. Surangel Whipps, Palau’s president, said his country needed to shore up allies as Beijing stepped up its efforts to lay claim to Indo-pacific territory and its energy-rich waters. The British Carrier Strike Group could encounter a hostile reception from China, as Beijing vies for economic and military dominance of the region.
The Royal Navy’s Carrier Strike Group would be welcome to visit Palau when it deploys to the Indo-pacific this year, as the island attempts to counter growing Chinese intimidation. In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Surangel Whipps, Palau’s president, said his country was facing a pressing need to shore up allies as Beijing stepped up its efforts to lay claim to Indo-pacific territory and its energy-rich waters.
The British Carrier Strike Group could encounter a hostile reception from China during its deployment, as Beijing vies for economic and military dominance of the region.
“If they want to come, we’ll find a way to bring them here so they can have some shore leave and enjoy our beautiful island,” said Mr Whipps.
His tiny island nation of 21,000 was a key battleground between American and Japanese forces during the Second World War and the stage of the major Battle of Peleliu in 1944. It is emerging as a strategic outpost of Us-china power competition in the Pacific.
Like other Pacific and south-east Asian coastal nations, it is on the front line of China’s forceful moves as it asserts its claims to disputed reefs and islands, and constructs facilities allegedly intended for military purposes.
Palau has faced Chinese opposition to its own claims to the continental shelf – a coveted spot for deep sea mining – and has reported incursions by Chinese fishing fleets. “We have had Chinese vessels come into our territory, not respect our borders, steal our resources – and the response from the Chinese government has been ‘hands off ’,” said Mr Whipps.
As the most vocal China-sceptic among the Pacific leaders, he admits that Palau’s role in international efforts to counter Chinese regional hegemony makes the country “a target”.
But he believes the deployment of naval missions to the region by a partner country, including HMS Queen Elizabeth, the UK’S new aircraft carrier, and its accompanying battle ships, will help “promote peace and security”.
He added: “We welcome the UK fleet.”
During a visit to Indonesia last week, Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, said the Indo-pacific lay “at the heart” of British foreign and security policy.
“The Carrier Strike Group’s deployment marks the start of a new era of defence cooperation,” he added.
Although the fleet is believed to have no current plans to anchor near Palau on a voyage that will focus on freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea, the island features prominently in US defence priorities as Washington seeks to expand its own footprint.
The US Indo-pacific Command in Hawaii has earmarked Palau for a radar system to detect and track air and surface targets.
Palau, like other Pacific nations, has a 50-year defence agreement with the US known as the Compact of Free Association (COFA), which already grants the Pentagon virtually unrestricted military access in exchange for a security guarantee and benefits for Palauan citizens. Mr Whipps offered his unwavering support for the radar programme.
“Whether it is our runways, or our sea ports, they are available to the United States,” he said.
The improvement of Palau’s three operational runways, and deepening of port facilities to accommodate a fleet as large as a carrier strike group, could serve strategic military purposes and make Palau’s economy less reliant on tourism, the president said.
“We continue to talk with the United States on these issues, but this is something that, as a region – and all our global partners – we can look at together. The port facilities could be used by the French and the UK and Japan,” he said.
His stance will be viewed positively in Washington. Although there has been no public commitment to build new military bases in Palau, US forces are under pressure from Japan to shrink their major bases in Okinawa and are looking to diversify their capabilities across the Pacific.
Situated east of the Philippines, a US treaty ally, Palau forms part of the “second island chain” that US military strategists view as a critical line of defence against Chinese advances across the Pacific. Palau’s importance was underscored by a visit there last year by Mark Esper, the first ever US defence secretary to do so.
Heino Klinck, former deputy assistant secretary of defence for east Asia, who was on the trip, said the US strategy was focused on “places not bases”, to respond to the growing Chinese military threat in the west Pacific. “I think, writ large, we value the presence of our allies and partners in the region, both from a diplomatic and messaging perspective that shows to the Chinese that this is not just a Us-china issue, this is a China versus the world issue,” he said.
The increasing political alignment between the US and its allies in the Indo-pacific and on issues relating to China also extends to Taiwan.
Beijing claims the democracy of 23 million as its own territory and has vowed to annex it – a move which would have huge regional security implications.
Palau is one of just 15 countries that have formal diplomatic ties with Taipei. Mr Whipps said Beijing had tried to buy his country’s allegiance with the promise that “the sky is the limit, just join us, cancel that relationship with Taiwan”.
He said no. “We shouldn’t be forced by anyone else to say that relationship should be severed,” he said, adding that while Palau sought friendly ties with China, “we should respect each other’s choices, we should respect each other’s borders”.
‘We have had Chinese vessels come into our territory – and the response from the government has been “hands off”’