US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday warned of China’s “problematic behavior” during a visit to the Pacific island nation of Tonga, citing Beijing’s militarization of the South China Sea and what he called economic coercion.
China’s growing presence in the region, which saw it sign a security pact with the Solomon Islands last year, has fueled concern in the US and Australia about Beijing’s ambitions, and prompted increased Western aid and engagement.
Blinken told a news conference that the US had no objection to China’s engagement with the region, but there were concerns that its investments needed to be transparent and undertaken with sustainable finance.
Photo: AFP
“I think one of the things that we’ve seen is that as China’s engagement in the [Indo-Pacific] region has grown there has been some, from our perspective, increasingly problematic behavior,” he said.
Blinken earlier held talks with Tongan Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni on the strategic importance of the Pacific region, ahead of his visits to the South Pacific’s two major powers, Australia and New Zealand.
Blinken said the US was committed to both Tonga and the broader Pacific Islands. He later attended a ceremony officially opening a new US embassy in the capital, Nuku’alofa, before flying on to Wellington.
One of the West’s biggest concerns is debt levels in the region. Tonga is heavily indebted to Beijing and there have been questions about how the nation of a little more than 100,000 people would repay that debt.
Sovaleni told a news conference that Tonga had this year started to pay down its debt and had no concerns about Tonga’s relationship with China, which was focused on development such as infrastructure.
Meanwhile, Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins yesterday issued a joint statement calling for transparency over the Solomon Islands-China policing deal.
“Leaders agreed it would be important for the Pacific Islands Forum to discuss these issues and encourage transparency, enabling the region to collectively consider the implications for our shared security,” it said.
The leaders also expressed concern about “growing challenges to regional stability” in the Indo-Pacific region, including tensions in the Taiwan Strait.
Hipkins also told reporters that New Zealand was “open to conversations” about a possible role in the AUKUS defense pact among Australia, the UK and the US, as long as it did not relate to the development of nuclear submarines.
He said that cooperation with AUKUS could take place on defense technologies such as cyber, artificial intelligence and hypersonic weapons — the agreement’s so-called “pillar two.”
Additional reporting by AFP
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