China News Network, September 27 (Reporter Meng Xiangjun) Recently, during the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly, US Secretary of State Blinken presided over the first foreign ministers' meeting of the "Blue Pacific Partnership" (PBP), which attracted attention.
After the meeting, Campbell, coordinator of Indo-Pacific affairs of the White House National Security Council, said that China's "ambitions" for the Pacific region have aroused "concern" among Pacific island leaders.
What is the Blue Pacific Partnership? Why did White House officials get involved with China? What is the historical latitude and longitude of the development and changes of Pacific island countries?
【Snubbed for decades, suddenly valued】
It all started with Blinken's trip to Fiji in February. Blinken, the first U.S. secretary of state to visit Fiji since 1985, held a video conference with the heads of 17 Pacific nations to announce that the United States would reopen embassies in the Solomon Islands.
You know, as early as the 1990s, when there was civil unrest in the Solomon Islands, the Americans closed their doors and left. And this closure is 29 years. This can only show that Pacific island countries like the Solomon Islands have long been forgotten by the United States...
U.S. Secretary of State Blinken hosted the Blue Pacific Partnership Foreign Ministers' Meeting. Image source: Screenshot of the official website of the U.S. Department of State
After the Biden administration came to power, the United States vigorously promoted the Indo-Pacific strategy, from the US-UK-Australia Tripartite Security Partnership (AUKUS) to the US-Japan-India-Australia Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD), and then to the new economic circle concept of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), and increasingly extended its "long arm" to the Asia-Pacific region.
In June, the United States pulled Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the United Kingdom together, and the five countries formed a "small circle" - the Blue Pacific Partnership. Canada, India, South Korea, Germany... More countries are also interested in "joining".
【Eager to show the sense of presence, intensive moves】
U.S. officials said that the purpose of the Blue Pacific Partnership is to support "Pacific regionalism" and strengthen cooperation with Pacific island countries in the fields of climate change, maritime security, and health.
But Campbell noted at the group's inception that the United States was interested in "strategic importance" in the Pacific region and aimed at "countervailing China's influence in the region."
In September 2019, China and the Solomon Islands established diplomatic relations, and in April 2022, the two sides signed a framework agreement on security cooperation. China's development of relations with Pacific island countries is perfectly normal from the perspective of geopolitical proximity or South-South cooperation, but the United States on the other side of the ocean has a sense of crisis.
In order to strengthen the influence of Pacific island countries, senior US officials have been intensively dispatched.
In April, Campbell, the White House National Security Council Indo-Pacific Affairs Coordinator, led a delegation to visit the Solomon Islands.
In July, U.S. Vice President Harris attended the Pacific Islands Forum and announced the opening of two new embassies, pledging $60 million a year in aid to the local community for 10 consecutive years.
In August, U.S. Secretary of State Sherman and U.S. Ambassador to Australia John F. Kennedy attended the World War II Campaign Commemoration Ceremony in the Solomon Islands and paved the way for the U.S.-Pacific Islands Summit to be held at the White House at the end of September. Sherman said U.S. President Joe Biden sees "strong relationships" with Pacific island nations as a "priority."
The purpose of the Blue Pacific Partnership (PBP) and the flags of member states. Image source: U.S. Department of State website
80 years ago, the United States and other international allies fought a seven-month-long fierce battle between land, sea and air on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, and their opponents were Japan, a member of today's "Blue Pacific Partnership".
As one of the bloodiest battles in military textbooks, the Battle of Guadalcanal is seen as the beginning of Japan's defeat in World War II. Foreign media found that Sherman and Kennedy's parents participated in the battle that year, believing that the two went to "persuade the Solomon Islands to turn to the United States with historical ties."
[Once hurt, the United States is good at forgetting]
In the late 1980s, the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and Palau signed the Treaty of Free Relations, which guarantees economic and security assistance, allowing the United States to assume its defense responsibilities and use its military bases within its borders. The relevant treaties will expire in 2023 and 2024.
However, because the United States has been ignoring the main demands of Pacific island countries, the renewal negotiations have stalled. Among these demands, the problems left over from history are quite prominent.
Looking back at history, it is not others who have turned the blue Pacific into a "sad Pacific", but the United States, which is good at forgetting.
The Marshall Islands, suspended above the Pacific Ocean, are more than 5,000 kilometers away from the continental United States. Because of its remoteness, the atoll became a U.S. nuclear test base, withstanding at least 67 nuclear weapons tests in 12 years, and nearly 20,000 square kilometers of sea became permanently contaminated by nuclear weapons.
Locally, the highly toxic levels of plutonium-239 and plutonium-240 are 10 times higher than those in the core area of Chernobyl and 10 to 1,000 times at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. The indigenous Micronesians were affected by radioactive dust and had to leave their homes and migrate around. To this day, the "aftermath" of nuclear tests still plagues the lives of local people.
For years, however, the United States has refused to "pay" for the ecological catastrophe it has created. It was not until March 2022 that the United States appointed Yin Rushang as the new special envoy for negotiations between Pacific island countries to deal with matters such as compensation for nuclear tests, and negotiations have been fruitless.
In this regard, the American Peace Research Institute, funded by the United States Congress, recently issued a report warning that if the renewal negotiations fail, these North Pacific island countries with the "most far-reaching historical ties" with the United States will "turn to China", which may "endanger the US military strength in important strategic geographical command areas and open the door to reshaping the regional architecture."
【Partner or chess pieces?】 Small circle in the United States]
For the United States, are Pacific island nations "partners or pawns"? The Australian National University DEVPOLICY website recently published an article pointing out that the United States created the "Blue Pacific Partnership" to coordinate Western allies and avoid the established regional decision-making process, and the convening of the Pacific Island Summit does not mean openness and inclusiveness.
The article also said that a fundamental issue in the U.S. dialogue with Pacific island nations is that island leaders do not believe that China poses a threat to their security. Their main challenge is to maintain regional unity around their "Blue Pacific" narrative, rather than being part of the U.S. containment of China.
Partner or pawn? Pacific island nations in U.S. strategy and the Washington summit. Image source: Screenshot of the DEVPOLICY website of the Australian National University
Garin, an expert at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, also pointed out that the Blue Pacific Partnership and the meetings it convened involve only five countries. These five countries discuss regional issues behind the backs of regional countries and attempt to determine the future of Oceania "in a narrow circle", which is "very absurd and contradictory" and is unlikely to receive a positive response from the island countries.
On May 28, Fijian Prime Minister Mbaini Marama bluntly stated that "our greatest concern is not geopolitics, but climate change", confirming Garin's analysis.
Sogavare, Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands, is also speaking with practical actions. In August, he did not attend the U.S.-sponsored World War II memorial service. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Sherman commented that the Solomon Islands "missed a good opportunity to establish a new partnership with the United States."
At the end of August, the Solomon Islands suspended the admission of any naval vessels to the port, and the US Coast Guard and British Royal Navy ships monitoring the "illegal fishing" in the Pacific Ocean touched a nose of ash.
Prime Minister Solomon said he had been vilified for signing an agreement with China and condemned the United States. Image source: Screenshot of the South China Morning Post report in Hong Kong
On September 24, during the general debate of the 77th session of the General Assembly, Sogavare said that since the establishment of diplomatic relations with China, the Solomon Islands has been subjected to "a series of baseless criticism, rumors and intimidation." But the country "will not ally with any external forces or security mechanisms that target sovereign states and threaten regional and international peace" and "will not be forced to take sides."
[China responds twice, points out the key]
Regarding Prime Minister Solomon's speech to the General Assembly, on September 26, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin responded as follows:
"Prime Minister Sogavare's remarks are loud and clear, effectively countering the groundless criticism and false accusations made by the outside world on China-China relations, and defending the legitimate right of China and China to carry out normal exchanges and cooperation, which the Chinese side highly appreciates."
Wang Wenbin further pointed out:
"China will always uphold the principles of mutual respect, equal treatment, mutual benefit and win-win results, openness and inclusiveness, develop friendly and cooperative relations with the Solomon Islands, and will always be a good friend and good partner that the Chinese side can trust, and continue to support the Chinese side to follow an independent and self-reliant development path that suits its own national conditions."
Earlier, Wang Wenbin also said when answering a reporter's question:
"What island nations need is mutually beneficial cooperation based on equal treatment, not expedient operations based on geopolitical calculations."
"The US side expresses its willingness to provide more support for the development of Pacific island countries, which is very good, and I hope that the US side will do what it says." (End)
Source: China News Network