U.S. finally looks to the Pacific after years of neglect

The Biden administration last month recognized the Cook Islands and Niue as “sovereign and independent states” and promised to open diplomatic relations. The United States opened new embassies in the Solomon Islands and Tonga and has promised one for Vanuatu.

The administration is also seeking some $40 million from Congress for infrastructure development in the South Pacific.

That’s a lot of sudden diplomatic attention to a remote grouping of 14 sparsely populated island nations whose combined economies are about the size of Vermont’s. What’s behind this sudden flurry of activity in a faraway, largely forgotten expanse of the Pacific Ocean?

The obvious answer is China, which has been making its own recent moves to step up its diplomatic engagement there. Its efforts appeared successful last year, when Beijing signed a security pact with the Solomon Islands.

The accord blindsided the United States and its two key allies in the region, Australia and New Zealand. They feared China would establish a military base in the area.

China can boast of investing more than $2.7 billion in the region and assisting the region with vaccines and medical supplies during the coronavirus pandemic.

But Beijing’s efforts appear to have stalled. The Pacific islands declined to sign a regional security pact with

China. They actually prefer Washington’s embrace — if the United States would only pay them some attention.

But they don’t want to be seen as anyone’s pawns, including Washington’s. Their top concern is dealing with the impacts of global climate change. The low-lying islands are already experiencing rising sea levels, coastal erosion and storm surges. Some are in danger of disappearing.

So the Biden administration is correct in devoting a large portion of its promised assistance to technology, through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to build more rapid communications and early warning systems, and to improve disaster preparedness for typhoons, tsunamis and other severe weather events.

The administration’s priorities seem right: infrastructure and combating the effects of climate change. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, will visit the region next month to help convince Pacific islanders that this newfound attention is more than fleeting.

The broader lesson should be that in the global competition with a more assertive China, the United States cannot neglect any country or region. It’s a lesson the administration should appy to Africa, South America and other too-often-ignored corners of the world.