2023-09-25 22:35:00
The President of the United States, Joe Biden, officially announced this Monday the recognition of the Cook Islands and Niue as sovereign and independent states and the establishment of diplomatic relations with both.
This step is an effort to strengthen alliances with South Pacific island nations and counter China’s influence in the region.
In separate communications, The president said Washington plans to work closely with both states.
United States cooperation with the Cook Islands, he highlighted, dates back to World War II (1939-1945), when the US military built airstrips on Penrhyn Atoll and Aitutaki.
De Niue stated that it plays a crucial and constructive role in the Pacific, which includes supporting the region’s sustainable development, security and marine protection.
Biden stressed that since taking office in January 2021 he has been committed to being a partner “active and committed” In the pacific. This Monday’s announcements, she stressed, will not only strengthen bilateral ties, but will help build a “safer, more prosperous and freer” shared future.
A summit with the leaders of the South Pacific archipelagos will be held in Washington this Monday and Tuesday..
Biden will launch a diplomatic offensive there through dinners, lunches and events designed to strengthen ties and address some of the region’s main concerns, including the climate crisis.
The president receives the leaders of those islands at the White House this Monday.
In the afternoon, these leaders will meet with Biden’s special envoy for climate, John Kerry, to discuss the effects of the climate crisis on the islands and, later, they will attend a dinner at which the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, and the ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, will serve as hosts.
On Tuesday, Kerry and the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Samantha Power, will receive the leaders to continue their conversations on the climate crisis.
There will also be meetings with members of Congress and with the US Secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen.
This will be Biden’s second summit with the leaders of these islands. At last year’s meeting, the White House took the opportunity to present its strategy for the Pacific and pledged to allocate $810 million in aid to island nations over the coming years.
Earlier this year, the United States opened embassies in the Solomon Islands and Tonga and plans to open an embassy in Vanuatu in early 2024.
The Pacific islands have become a new focus of geopolitical tension between the United States and China.
Washington ignored them for years, allowing Beijing to increase its diplomatic presence, invest in infrastructure construction and forge security agreements.
Geographically, these archipelagos have strategic importance due to their location on key trade routes in the Pacific and for being right in the area of influence of the Aukus tripartite pact (acronym in English for Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States), created in September 2021. and which has already resulted in a project to provide Canberra with nuclear-powered submarines.
Representatives of Australia, Fiji, Cook Islands, Kiribati, New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Micronesia, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Marshall Islands, have been invited to the summit with Biden, according to official sources. Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
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