A delay by the US in providing crucial funding to Pacific Island nations is fuelling concern in the region – but questions about the competing visions held by the US and regional leaders are even more pressing. The funding is part of longstanding agreements the US has with three nations in the north Pacific, the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), the Marshall Islands and Palau. The agreements, known as the Compacts of Free Association (Cofa), provide a range of assistance to these nations, including visa-free entry to the US, grant…
Tag: Cook Islands
Climate crisis and China-US rivalry: five top takeaways from the Pacific’s most important summit
Leaders from Pacific island countries – together with Australia and New Zealand – have just wrapped up their most important annual political talks. They wrestled with calls to phase out fossil fuels and discussed how to navigate intense rivalry between the US and China, all while trying to keep a lid on simmering internal tensions. Here’s what we learned from the weeklong Pacific Islands Forum (Pif) summit hosted by the Cook Islands. Fossil fuel phase-out call watered down Pacific island countries are especially vulnerable to rising sea levels and extreme…
Pacific Islands Forum: China-US rivalry takes centre stage as Solomon Islands deepens ties with Beijing
Pacific island leaders are descending on the Cook Islands for the region’s most important annual political gathering, with the talks likely to be dominated by the climate crisis and growing US-China rivalry. The Pacific Islands Forum (Pif) is an 18-member grouping of 16 Pacific nations, including Australia and New Zealand, plus two French territories. This year, Solomon Islands – which has drawn closer to China since signing a security agreement in 2022 – is reported to be sending a delegation led by the foreign minister, Jeremiah Manele, not the prime…
Biden pledges $40bn to Pacific islands as summit seeks to reassert influence
Joe Biden has offered $40bn in economic aid to Pacific islands at a White House meeting with leaders from the region aimed at bolstering US engagement in the face of growing a growing Chinese presence. The president also announced formal US recognition of two new island nations, the Cook Islands and Niue, at the start of the Pacific Islands Forum, two days of Washington meetings with leaders from the group’s 18 members. “The United States committed to ensuring an Indo-Pacific region that is free, open, prosperous and secure. We’re committed…
U.S. Recognition of Tiny Pacific Country Reshapes Its New Zealand Ties
The Cook Islands had given up on its dream of United Nations membership and, with it, greater autonomy and influence on the world stage. New Zealand, the country that once governed the small Pacific nation and still exercises power there, had rejected its repeated entreaties. But now that President Biden has provided a stamp of approval — with formal recognition for the Cook Islands at a summit of Pacific nations in September — the country of 18,000 people has shifted course, moving toward joining international bodies with renewed vigor. What…