Pacific Island Forum Highlights Strategic Importance of the Region.

The Pacific Island forum members, made up of Australia, New Zealand and 14 Pacific Island nations, also received a high level delegation from China.
Pacific Island Forum Highlights Strategic Importance of the Region.
9/12/2011
Updated:
10/1/2015

<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/124023067.jpg" alt="New Zealand Prime Minister John Key (C) speaks to the press during the second day of the annual Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) in Auckland on Sept. 8, 2011. (Bradley Ambrose/AFP/Getty Images)" title="New Zealand Prime Minister John Key (C) speaks to the press during the second day of the annual Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) in Auckland on Sept. 8, 2011. (Bradley Ambrose/AFP/Getty Images)" width="575" class="size-medium wp-image-1797927"/></a>
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key (C) speaks to the press during the second day of the annual Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) in Auckland on Sept. 8, 2011. (Bradley Ambrose/AFP/Getty Images)

A high level US delegation’s attendance at last week’s 40th Pacific Island Forum in Auckland, New Zealand, marked a new engagement in the region. China’s increasing influence in the Pacific Island region is credited with much of the renewed interest.

Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Nides led the 50 strong American delegation, which included Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell and representatives from the White House, the department of State, Defence, Commerce, and the US Coast Guard.

<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/124012513.jpg" alt="US Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Nides during the second day of the annual Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), in Auckland, on Sept. 8, 2011.  (Bradley Ambrose/AFP/Getty Images)" title="US Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Nides during the second day of the annual Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), in Auckland, on Sept. 8, 2011.  (Bradley Ambrose/AFP/Getty Images)" width="200" class="size-medium wp-image-1797929"/></a>
US Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Nides during the second day of the annual Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), in Auckland, on Sept. 8, 2011.  (Bradley Ambrose/AFP/Getty Images)
The delegation followed an earlier visit in June to eight Pacific island states by Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Patrick Walsh, USAID Assistant Administrator Nisha Biswal, and Brigadier General Richard Simcock.

“The President himself has asked us to come to be here to represent the United States,” Mr Nide told journalists in Auckland, the New Zealand Newswire reported.

The Pacific Island forum members, made up of Australia, New Zealand and 14 Pacific Island nations, also received a high level delegation from China.

China Growing Influence

Stephen Hoadley, Professor of International Relations and Human Rights at Auckland University says it is hard to know what China is doing in the region but he believes that with the US bogged down in the Middle East, China is seizing the opportunity to expand its interests in the South Pacific.

The ANZ Bank announced in February this year, that trade between China and the Pacific Islands rose from US$180 million in 2001 to US$1.5 billion by 2010, reported Radio Australia News.

American interest in the South Pacific, however had waned, over the last decade, said Professor Hoadley, as the US began to engage in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The closure of the US Agency for International Development’s (USAID) regional office in Suva, Fiji, emphasised that the US had greater priorities in other parts of the globe.

As the US disengaged, Chinese embassies began to appear in most of the island states and visits from high ranking Chinese indicated that China increasingly views the region as a part of its hemisphere of influence, says Professor Hoadley.

According to Australia’s Lowy Institute of International Policy by 2008 China had promised aid in the form of soft loans and grants to the value of US$206 million to the region. In the same year USAID aid was only US$3.6 million.

China was also the third largest donor in 14 Pacific Island countries in 2009, coming well behind Australia, slightly behind the U.S. but ahead of New Zealand, Japan and the EU, according to the institutes report, China in the Pacific: The New Banker in Town.

Clinton Renews Pacific Focus

Last year’s visit by Hillary Clinton to the APEC meeting in New Zealand and US promises of assistance for security and developmental aid in the region signaled a turnabout in America’s geo-political stance.

With China emerging as a power in the Pacific it was not the time for the US to be withdrawing suddenly from the region, Ms Clinton said.

Professor Hoadley believes Beijing has serious intentions in the region and has been “very active in inviting leaders—particularly Bainimarana is a great beneficiary—to Beijing where they get head of state welcome and get to meet high ranking Chinese”.

With the US reopening a USAID office in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, later this year, Professor Hoadley anticipates an increase in US aid to governments in the South Pacific.

He is concerned that China is playing a “cunning” strategic game in the region.

“My concern is that Chinese are offering what looks like very generous aid gifts and they are not too worried about democracy and human rights,” he says.“As a consequence Pacific Island leaders are being a bit beguiled, dazzled by China but I personally don’t think it will prove to be substantial and China will want something in return in the future”.

Professor Hoadley noted that China may well be interested in Cook Island’s seabed prospecting licences to be tendered in 2012; shipping access (including military vessels) to island ports; or possibly a type of “quasi military agreement” similar to the one that China has signed with Fiji.

China Losing its Gloss

Commenting on the increased interest in the region, Dr Steven Ratuva, lecturer in Pacific Island Studies, Auckland University, welcomed more players in the Pacific.

He says, however, that China’s engagement was starting to lose its gloss amongst Pacific Island communities.

Chinese aid was not geared toward economic development, he said, but more on large symbolic edifices like sports stadiums and gymnastic centres. These buildings were largely poorly built and were now becoming a cost burden, he said.

“Often, sustaining and managing this infrastructure tends to be quite costly because they tend to disintegrate pretty fast because of the quality of the workmanship like stadiums, gymnasiums, all those things,” he said.

Dr Ratuva referred to a Chinese built Court House in the Cook Islands, a gymnasium and swimming pool in Fiji, and “the same thing in Samoa”, all of which are exhibiting structural problems.

Chinese were also more focussed on soft loans, rather than aid which was “loading a lot of Pacific Island countries with a burden of debt” he said, noting particularly Tonga and the Cook Islands.

“It may be a soft loan, the conditions may be generous, but the economy itself hasn’t got enough capacity to pay it back,” he said.