The United States is trying to assert its power and curb China’s growing influence by forming a new Pacific coalition of countries, analysts say.
The US on Saturday joined New Zealand, Australia, Japan and the United Kingdom in announcing the “Partners in the Blue Pacific” initiative, which will have the countries co-operate in the region.
The intent of the partnership was to work better with Pacific countries on climate change, “maritime security and protection”, and economic, health, and education development.
“It looks like the US is pretty desperate at the moment, to join the party, as it were, in the Pacific,” said Professor Steven Ratuva, director of Canterbury University’s Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies.
“It’s not unexpected at all, because the United States has been watching what’s happening in the Pacific, particularly with the growth of the Chinese influence.”
Though the countries promised to “increase the ambitions of our individual efforts in the region”, no specific projects were announced at the weekend.
In a statement announcing the partnership, the countries said they would be consulting with Pacific leaders about where co-operation could be “deepened”.
The statement included repeated references to the importance of the Pacific Islands Forum, the leading regional group of Pacific countries which was due to meet in mid-July.
Ratuva said a key questions was whether the US was genuine in its desire to help the Pacific develop, or whether it was serving its strategic interests.
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“The United States has never been interested in Pacific development, has never been interested in issues in the Pacific, it’s basically just interested in its bigger geostrategic interests,” he said. “Its engagement in the Pacific now is really to do with how it can keep the Chinese at bay.”
Beijing earlier this year launched an ambitious bid to secure a region-wide deal with 10 Pacific nations, that ultimately failed after the countries declined to sign. It came after the Solomon Islands signed a security deal with China, alarming the US, New Zealand and Australia.
Ratuva said New Zealand had been left out of the US’ other Indo-Pacific alliances, the Quad and Aukus defence arrangements.
“New Zealand has much more leverage [in the Pacific] in terms of people-to-people connection, in terms of economic sports and cultural connections. This is probably one of the reasons why they try to rope in New Zealand.
The Pacific countries would likely see the new partnership as “just another one”, he said.
Dr Anna Powles, a Pacific security expert and senior lecturer at Massey University, said though the partnership placed the Pacific Island Forum at the centre of the region’s affairs, it was also about primacy of the US in the Pacific.
“This of course has an element of countering China and strengthening co-ordination amongst partners in order to provide alternatives to China.”
She said the new partnership resembled an earlier US attempt to rebuild influence in the Asia-Pacific during the Obama administration, dubbed the “Pivot to Asia” by current White House Indo-Pacific advisor Kurt Campbell.
“It just feels like we’ve been here before. Campbell spearheaded the ‘pivot’ in 2012, so there’s an element of deja-vu here.
She said New Zealand was trying to consistently remind partners such as the United States of the Pacific’s priorities.
“For it to be successful, it needs to be consistent. It needs to be clear that it has Pacific buy-in ... and there also needs to be, really importantly, deep knowledge and expertise and capacity to ensure that resources are not wasted.”
