Kamala Harris Announces 2 New US Embassies in Major Pacific Push, #Kamala #Harris #anounces #US #embassies #major #Pacific #push Welcome to OLASMEDIA TV NEWSThis is what we have for you today:
CANBERRA, Australia — US Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday announced new investments in the Pacific and the opening of two embassies in a speech to a summit of island nations increasingly under Chinese influence.
Harris’ invitation to speak virtually at the Pacific Islands Forum in Fiji was remarkable, as the forum’s dialogue partners – including the United States, China, Britain and France – were not invited to this year’s summit.
Harris said the US would establish two new embassies in Tonga and Kiribati, a Micronesian state that this week split from the 18-nation forum as a major blow to regional harmony.
She also proposed asking Congress to triple funding for economic development and “ocean resilience” in the region to $60 million a year, return Peace Corps volunteers to the region, and appoint the first U.S. envoy to the United States. forum.
“We recognize that the Pacific islands may not have received the diplomatic attention and support you deserve in recent years,” Harris said. “So today I’m here to tell you directly: we’re going to change that.”
The United States and the forum’s wealthiest countries, Australia and New Zealand, are concerned about a security pact signed this year between China and the Solomon Islands and have responded by stepping up their involvement in the region. Last year, President Joe Biden became the first US president to address the forum.
Earlier this year, the United States said it would reopen its embassy in the Solomon Islands for the first time since 1993. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made the announcement in February during a tour of the Pacific Ocean, the first such voyage by America’s top diplomat in four years. decades.
In 2019, both the Solomon Islands and Kiribati shifted their diplomatic recognition from self-governed Taiwan to Beijing, which claims the island as its territory. Kiribati’s withdrawal from the forum is being interpreted as a deepening of China’s influence in the region.
Australian Foreign Secretary Penny Wong on Tuesday urged forum countries to unite in their shared challenges, including strategic competition between the US and China, climate change and the coronavirus pandemic.
“All nations are trying to meet these challenges. And we do it best when we can do it together,” Wong said.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who arrived in Fiji on Monday, described Kiribati’s withdrawal as “disappointing”. Wong said the “door remains open” for Kiribati’s return.
The forum’s secretary general, Henry Puna, addressed “our brothers and sisters from Micronesia” on Tuesday and called for reconciliation.
“I recognize once again the breakdown in our connections over the past two years,” said Puna, former Prime Minister of the Cook Islands.
“My hope is that through our dialogue mechanism and the resolutions we are working towards, you will continue to find value and indeed belong within the forum,” he added.
Puna was elected Secretary General over a Micronesian candidate last year, widening the gulf between Kiribati and the other nations. Due to the pandemic, the Fiji Summit is the first opportunity for Pacific leaders to meet face-to-face since 2019, when the forum met in Tuvalu.
In his opening address at the forum, which he will host this year, Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said the Pacific countries had a choice.
“The most important consideration for us this week is this: How will we, the Pacific Islands Forum, choose to navigate these challenges and opportunities as we travel into the future?” he asked. “Shall we move forward together? Shall we take individual paths? Shall we be assertive or will we leave it to others to decide our fate?”
In May, China fell short of a bold plan to get 10 Pacific countries to sign a sweeping new agreement covering everything from security to fisheries, as some in the region expressed deep concern. But there were plenty of smaller victories for Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on his island-hopping tour of the region, including bilateral deals.
Wang was in Fiji on May 30 to organize an important meeting with the foreign ministers of the 10 island states. At an unusual press conference afterward, Wang and Bainimarama spoke for about 30 minutes, then abruptly left the stage as reporters tried to ask questions. That left many details of what happened at the meeting unanswered, but it was clear that the nations had not endorsed China’s plan.