The Republican chairman of the US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs on Friday said he supported funding for US-allied Pacific Island nations as a way to counter the influence of China, and would push to include them in any supplemental security aid bill.
“That’s such a critical part of our countering the malign influence of China, with the island nations that they’re buying off, as you know, one by one,” US Representative Michael McCaul said at meeting with journalists sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor.
The Federated States of Micronesia, and Taiwan’s diplomatic allies the Marshall Islands and Palau agreed to new 20-year funding programs with the US last year under which Washington provides economic assistance, while gaining exclusive military access to strategic swaths of the Pacific that China covets.
Photo: Reuters
However, despite bipartisan support for the new programs, known as Compacts of Free Association (COFAs), the US Congress has yet to approve the funding, even though the additional amount needed is a relatively small US$2.3 billion, worrying the islands’ leaders.
McCaul said he has advocated for a US$900 million package for COFAs, but was open to other figures.
The US Senate last week passed a US$95 billion foreign aid supplemental spending bill for Taiwan, Ukraine and Israel that did not include the COFA funding.
McCaul said he would work to ensure the money was included in whatever was voted on in the House, likely in the middle of next month.
“The House is going to want to have its own imprimatur on this. Right? We’re not just going to rubber-stamp the Senate supplemental,” he said.
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