The US is on track to open a new embassy in Tonga this month, the top US diplomat for East Asia said on Tuesday, part of efforts to step up its diplomatic presence in the Pacific region to counter China.
US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink told a subcommittee of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the US was also continuing to engage with Vanuatu and Kiribati about opening proposed new embassies in those countries.
The US Department of State in March said it plans to open an embassy in Vanuatu.
Photo: Reuters
The US has diplomatic relations with the South Pacific island nation, but they are handled by US diplomats based in Papua New Guinea.
The US reopened its embassy in the Solomon Islands this year after a 30-year absence.
Despite the diplomatic push, the Solomon Islands in March announced that it had awarded a multimillion-dollar contract to a Chinese state company to upgrade an international port in Honiara.
The US and regional allies Australia and New Zealand have had concerns that China has ambitions to build a naval base in the region since the Solomon Islands struck a security pact with Beijing last year.
Washington has also been working to renew agreements with the Marshall Islands, Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia, under which it retains responsibility for the islands’ defense and gains exclusive access to huge swaths of the Pacific.
US President Joe Biden’s administration is seeking US$7.1 billion from the US Congress over the next two decades for economic assistance to the three countries, funds seen as key to insulating them from growing Chinese influence.
Washington is also planning a possible Biden stop in Papua New Guinea on May 22 as part of stepped-up engagement with the Pacific-island region, officials familiar with the matter said.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
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