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A senior U.S. administration official said the United States needs to move ahead and fulfill its commitment under new arrangements with three Pacific Island nations as Washington faces fierce competition from Beijing in the region.
The new 20-year funding programs for the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the Republic of Palau are awaiting congressional approval. Under the new arrangements, the U.S. would provide defense and economic assistance while securing exclusive military access to pivotal areas across the Pacific.
Thursday, the nominee for deputy secretary of state, Kurt Campbell, told a Senate panel that if Congress fails to fund the agreements, “you can expect that literally the next day, Chinese diplomats, military and other folks will be on the plane landing in” each of these island states, trying to “secure a better deal for China.”
Campbell, currently the White House National Security Council’s coordinator for Indo-Pacific affairs, also said it is critical for the United States to support its diplomatic personnel amid intense competition from China.
“I remember last year we went to the Solomons for the first time. We landed in our plane. We got off. We were met at the airport by one [U.S.] diplomat, probably the most hard-charging guy I’ve ever met, and he was exhausted.
“He was a one-person diplomacy in the Solomons, one of our most contested places, and was living in a hotel with his dog. And as we drove into town, we went by the gleaming Chinese Embassy [with] dozens and dozens of staffers,” Campbell said during his nomination hearing.
In Beijing, Chinese officials have said competition should not define its relationship with the U.S.
“Major-country competition cannot solve the problems facing China and the United States or the world,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a readout after U.S. President Joe Biden’s four hours of talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on November 15 on the sidelines of the APEC summit in San Francisco.
Some U.S. lawmakers say they disagree with Beijing’s assessment.
“China intends to replace us, probably by midcentury, as the economic, military and geopolitical leader of the world,” Republican Senator Mitt Romney said during Campbell’s nomination hearing Thursday. “They [China] say, of course, that they’re worried about us, you know, constraining and containing them, which is laughable. They’re all over the world, far more than we are.”