Not usually at the forefront of geopolitical argy-bargy, the Pacific has recently emerged as a strategic element of securing democracy. A rift threatened to tear apart normally unshakeable regional unity in 2021, with five Micronesian countries threatening to leave the most powerful transnational group, the Pacific Islands Forum. Ahead of the July 12 - 14 meeting of the Forum, the rift seems to have been patched over. But both China and the United States have a renewed interest in winning friends and influencing the region. Each are expected to send high-level envoys to the Forum meeting. The US has long enjoyed military access to many Pacific Islands, including some with US bases. China’s recent attempts to establish the same with Solomon Islands has been met with alarm from the US and its regional allies.
The patch that kept the Forum unified needs to be strong enough to withstand these opposing forces. While each nation may consist of small islands, united, they represent control of one fifth of the world’s oceans.
Meanwhile the region faces considerable longer-term challenges that nations eager to form partnerships in the region can exploit to their advantage. Development, law and order, fisheries, security, communications, spiralling debt and women’s rights remain priorities for Pacific Island countries. And climate change, always climate change, lurks in the shadows of every aspect of Pacific life.
