Since coming into office, the Biden-Harris administration has worked tirelessly to broaden and deepen its engagement with Pacific island countries as a priority of U.S. foreign policy. As a Pacific nation, the United States has a clear and abiding interest in partnering with its Pacific neighbors to advance a shared agenda: addressing the climate crisis, maintaining peaceful waterways and upholding freedom of navigation, promoting development and economic growth, and deepening people-to-people ties. The United States has and will continue to advance our shared priorities in a careful, consultative manner that centers the Pacific Islands Forum as the region's institution of choice, including at the 53rd Pacific Island Forum Leaders Meeting taking place in Tonga this week. And we will seek to engage other friends of the Pacific through groupings like the Partners in the Blue Pacific and the Quad to ensure engagement with the region is conducted in a way that best meets Pacific needs, as identified in guiding documents like the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent and the Boe Declaration.
Over the last three and a half years, the Biden-Harris administration has hosted two historic Pacific Islands Forum Summits at the White House; opened three new embassies in Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Vanuatu; released the first ever U.S.-Pacific Partnership Strategy; and announced plans, working with Congress, to provide over $8 billion in new funding for the Pacific Islands. The United States recognized Cook Islands and Niue as sovereign and independent states and established diplomatic relationships with them; expanded USAID offices in Papua New Guinea and Fiji; returned the Peace Corps to Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, and Vanuatu; and increased the availability of U.S. consular services to enable easier travel. We have surged Coast Guard resources to help Pacific island countries safeguard their maritime territories against illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing; launched National Guard State Partnership Programs with Samoa and Papua New Guinea; and tended to tens of thousands of medical patients during missions by the hospital ship USNS Mercy. And we have worked to uplift the economies of the Pacific by launching a $50 million microfinance facility for micro-, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs); co-hosting a Pacific Banking Forum with Australia; investing in secure and resilient internet infrastructure throughout the region; and recruiting a delegation of U.S. companies to explore business opportunities at a seminar in Suva.
Our commitment to the Pacific is steadfast and future-oriented. The long-term investments we are making in our presence and our partnerships in this region are evidence of our intent to build lasting relationships with our Pacific partners, which we will accomplish with whole-of-government, bipartisan support. And we will continue to center our engagement on Pacific-identified needs, via new programs, initiatives, and funding like those laid out below. Highlights of these, subject to Congressional requirements, include: providing an additional $20 million toward the development of the PIF's Pacific Resilience Facility; identifying four Pacific institutions to receive up to $50 million from our MSME microfinancing facility; opening a consular window to provide in-person visa services at our Embassy in Tonga; holding a trade promotion and capacity building seminar in the region; and launching a new five–year program to boost Pacific island countries' access to climate finance.
Enhancing Pacific Islands' Climate Resilience
There is no greater challenge facing the Pacific Islands in the 21st century than the threat posed by climate change. It is critical that the world, particularly all major economies, accelerate cuts in greenhouse gas emissions on a trajectory consistent with keeping 1.5 degrees within reach. Recognizing that climate impacts like sea-level rise are already underway, we must also advance adaptation efforts. The United States has heard the calls from Pacific leaders and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat to support adaptation and resilience for local populations, and is proud to support Pacific-led initiatives, including the Pacific Resilience Facility.
- Additional Support for the Pacific Resilience Facility (PRF): The Department of State, pending Congressional notification and completion of domestic procedures, intends to provide an additional $20 million to the PIF's Pacific Resilience Facility to support the facility's development of its core operational procedures and project preparation for an initial set of facility grants.
- Tuvalu Coastal Adaptation Project: The Department of State intends to provide $2.65 million for the Tuvalu Coastal Adaptation Project to support a land reclamation project that will increase the nation's land area by 21 hectares with support from Taiwan, Australia, and New Zealand.
- Accelerating Climate Finance for a More Resilient Climate Future: USAID is launching two new complementary climate finance activities that will work hand in hand to bolster the region's climate resilience. The first is Climate Ready 2.0, a new five-year effort to partner with Pacific island countries and regional institutions to improve access to and management of climate finance from a variety of sources (e.g., multi-donor trust funds, bilateral donors, philanthropies, and the private sector) needed to fund their adaptation priorities and solutions. This new activity will build on years of successful collaboration with local partners and the private sector, which has helped Pacific island countries mobilize over half a billion dollars from international climate funds. The second is a new line of effort through the USAID Climate Finance Development Accelerator to catalyze new partnerships with the private sector and identify finance to scale up successful local solutions and approaches in Fiji and Papua New Guinea. It will also strengthen the capacity of Pacific civil society organizations to improve climate resilience through community-driven projects.
- Strengthening Disaster Preparedness: USAID is providing over $3.6 million to bolster local, provincial, and national disaster preparedness throughout the Pacific region. This funding will support a new partnership with the Pacific Community (SPC) to enhance emergency management systems and coordination, extend USAID's long-standing partnership with the World Food Program to strengthen logistics and the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster, and expand humanitarian partners' efforts to train emergency responders. USAID's three-pronged approach-to enhance emergency response systems, improve disaster preparedness, and strengthen first-responder capabilities-promotes self-reliance, enabling partner countries to lessen the impacts of natural hazards and respond more effectively to disasters.
- Launching the Pacific Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils (PACS): The Department of State, working with Congress, and Australia each plan to provide $1.3 million to launch PACS to build a more climate-resilient food system in Pacific island countries, in partnership with the Pacific Community and New Zealand. An expansion of the U.S.-catalyzed global Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils (VACS) movement, PACS will support Pacific efforts like the Unlocking Blue Pacific Prosperity (UBPP) initiative to increase targeted investments in diverse, nutritious, and climate-adapted crops grown in healthy soils and sustainably managed landscapes.
- Climate-Smart Agriculture: Working with Congress, USAID intends to provide $2 million to support a new initiative with other partners to support climate-smart agriculture in the Pacific and increase the availability of nutritious, safe, and affordable foods. USAID will also seek partnerships with key regional institutions and initiatives like UBPP as well as private-sector stakeholders to leverage their expertise and resources to promote supply chain diversification.
- Partnership with the Philippines to Enhance Pacific Disaster Readiness: USAID is supporting a collaborative humanitarian learning initiative through the International Organization for Migration that promotes engagement between disaster response authorities in the Philippines and select Pacific island countries to share best practices, strategies, and identify and address gaps in disaster preparedness and response.
- Peace Corps Climate Adaptation and Resilience: Peace Corps Tonga has received their initial cohort of Climate Adaptation and Resilience Volunteers, who will be working with Village Emergency Management Committees and other local leaders to support adaptation, resilience, and Disaster Risk Reduction activities. In addition, Peace Corps Samoa is designing another Climate Adaptation and Resilience project in collaboration with Samoa's Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, with the first cohort of Volunteers projected to arrive in July 2025.
- Vanuatu Weather Forecasting and Early Warning System Modernization: A United States Trade Development Agency (USTDA) grant of over $1.6 million for the Vanuatu Meteorology and Geohazards Department is funding technical assistance and a pilot project to support the modernization of early warning systems and weather forecasting capabilities in Vanuatu. The activity will assess the economic and technical feasibility of deploying an innovative weather intelligence platform to support climate adaptation, disaster preparedness, and modernization of weather forecasting services.
Advancing the U.S.-Pacific Partnership
The strength of our continued engagement in the Pacific Islands is undergirded by the dynamism of our growing official diplomatic presence in the region and the depth of our development cooperation across the region.
- Embassy opening: A new U.S. Embassy in Port Vila opened on July 19, in a ceremony presided over by U.S. Ambassador Yastishock and ni-Vanuatu Deputy Prime Minister Seremaiah.
- Return of the Peace Corps to Vanuatu: Peace Corps Volunteers returned to Vanuatu in July, following the rehabilitation of a Peace Corps-supported Intensive Care Unit in Vanuatu's main hospital.
- Provision of In-Country Visa Services in Tonga: U.S. Embassy Nuku'alofa recently constructed the first formal U.S. consular window in the Kingdom of Tonga. This window will significantly reduce the costs to Tongans associated with applying for U.S. visas, and the two-way travel enabled by these services will foster the growing relationship between our countries and enrich the connection between Tongan-Americans and their families in Tonga.
- Palau Hospital Feasibility Study: The United States is committed to supporting the development of resilient and secure infrastructure to address the priority needs of our Pacific Island partners, including in the healthcare sector. Following a scoping mission to Palau this past July, the Department of State and the USTDA, working with Congress, are exploring support for a feasibility study to examine options for a new hospital in Palau this fall.
- Tuvalu Domestic Biogas Systems Project: The Department of State plans to provide $1 million for the expansion of the Pacific Community's (SPC) biogas project in Tuvalu to increase access to clean and renewable domestic energy sources with support from Taiwan.
- Papua New Guinea Drone Healthcare Distribution Center Feasibility Study and Pilot Project: The USTDA grant to Applus+ PNG Ltd. will evaluate the technical feasibility of establishing a drone delivery service and related centers to distribute pharmaceuticals and other medical supplies to remote areas of Papua New Guinea. The study will be carried out by Zipline International Inc. (San Francisco, CA), the designer, manufacturer, and operator of unmanned aerial vehicle/drone distribution centers in seven countries. If the study indicates project viability, Zipline intends todevelop a pilot distribution and drone launch center in Papua New Guinea.
- New Ambassador Self-Help Small Grants Program: USAID and the Department of State are working together to set up a five-year Ambassador's Self-Help Small Grants Program that will provide targeted funding for small-scale projects and increase the flexibility of U.S. funding resources across the Pacific. The program will support community-led initiatives, filling a gap by providing more accessible resources for small projects that address local needs. The first application window opened on August 15 for projects focused on climate adaptation.
- Advancing a Democratic and Resilient Blue Pacific Continent: USAID, working with Congress, plans to invest more than $4.5 million in new development assistance to foster good governance, support free and fair elections, elevate women's political participation, and enhance climate resilience, including catalyzing finance. This funding will expand ongoing activities like Promoting Just, Engaged, Civic-minded and Transparent (PROJECT) Governance as well as support new activities. In addition, USAID is working with the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS) to provide funding to support the inclusion of civil society and non-state actors as a part of the Implementation Plan for the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent.
- Removal of Storm-Damaged Fuel Tanks in Niue: The Department of State is committed to working with Congress on plans to provide funding for the removal of the storm-damaged fuel tanks in Niue. Removing the fuel tanks will kickstart opportunities for broader redevelopment of the Alofi wharf and provide a platform to build deeper cooperation on international port and maritime security.
- New Office Space to Support USAID's Expanding Presence: USAID is securing larger office space in Fiji and Papua New Guinea to accommodate a growing staff presence. USAID is currently operating from U.S. Embassy Suva and U.S. Embassy Port Moresby, which has limited space. This is a significant step in deepening USAID's long-term investment and partnerships in the Pacific. The new office spaces will allow for USAID to build lasting relationships with Pacific governments, civil society, the private sector, and communities, prioritize locally-hired expertise, and implement more effective and informed development programs.
- Pacific Quality Infrastructure Principles: The U.S. government is proud to announce U.S. endorsement of the PIF's Pacific Quality Infrastructure Principles, which aim to improve the integrity of decision-making for infrastructure investments to maximize positive impacts in the Pacific. The principles aim to ensure that infrastructure financing and development generates local employment and benefits, integrates social and environmental considerations, strengthens climate resilience, and is economically efficient.
Deepening People-to-People Links Between the United States and Pacific Islands
We continue to look for new and innovative ways to foster the vital connections formed between the American people and the people in the Pacific Islands. Our exchange programs, university partnerships, and sports diplomacy initiatives have kindled new friendships across cultures, and our ongoing "7 for 70" initiative to establish seven new sister cities pairings between U.S. and Pacific island cities saw its first official partnership signed between Rarotonga and Honolulu in June and three new letters of intent signed in June and July.
- Youth Ambassadors Program in EAP: Beginning in 2025, the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) will launch the Youth Ambassadors Program for the East Asia and the Pacific region, which will include bringing approximately seven secondary school students (ages 15-17) and one adult mentor from Pacific island countries to the United States for a month-long program. The participants will stay with American host families and examine civic education, leadership development, respect for diversity, and community engagement. Upon their return home, participants will design and implement projects that serve their communities, using skills and knowledge from the exchange.
- Academy of Women Entrepreneurs: The Academy of Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) gives enterprising women the knowledge, networks, and access they need to launch and grow successful businesses. The Department of State is funding a robust slate of AWE cohorts throughout the Pacific Islands. Approximately 400 women will participate in the program in 2024 and 2025, including expanded program offerings in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Fiji, Samoa, the Cook Islands, French Polynesia, and cohorts for Pacific Islands diasporas in New Zealand. This expansion of the program is a significant increase in our investment in the people of the Pacific Islands.
- Expanding USAID's Minority Serving Institutions Partnerships Initiative to the Pacific: USAID signed a MOU with the University of Guam to diversify USAID's strategic partnerships and programing approach in the Pacific Islands. This marks the seventh such MOU under USAID's Minority Serving Institutions Partnerships Initiative, the first in the Pacific region, and the first with an Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Serving Institution. The partnership willharness University of Guam's extensive research capacity, including on climate and water, as well as geographical and cultural expertise, to contribute to the development and sustainability of several islands across the Pacific. This MOU also strengthens ties with U.S. territories and celebrates the importance of improving access and opportunities for all U.S. citizens, not just those in the continental United States. In the coming months, USAID and University of Guam partners will collaboratively determine the activities that will advance the shared goals of the MOU.
- Student Exchange and University Partnerships: In October 2024, the U.S.-Pacific Institute for Rising Leaders Fellowship, announced by the White House at the first-ever U.S.-Pacific Island Country Summit in September 2022, will bring the second cohort of the Fellowship from Pacific island countries and territories to the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington for a three-week program focusing on strengthening leadership, decision-making, and communication skills. The first cohort of the Fellowship visited Washington D.C. and New York in October 2023 and engaged with academic experts and senior U.S. policymakers to explore some of the most pressing issues in the Pacific region, with a focus on maritime topics, public health, and climate resilience. In addition, in June 2024, the PNG University of Technology and Charleston Southern University signed a MOU to promote exchanges and cooperation, and the University of Papua New Guinea and California State University, Long Beach committed to sign an MOU to promote further cooperation.
- Global STEM Development Scholarship Program: In 2024, the Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs launched the Global STEM Development Scholarship Program, which will support exchanges for approximately 10 exchange visitors from Pacific island countries. Visitors will participate in STEM research, training, and teaching, with a focus on mitigating and combatting climate change.
- Preserving Cultural Heritage: The Department of State will support a pilot phase of the Australian Museum's Pasifika Tauhi project to develop a network of collaboration among museums in 15 Pacific nations and in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. The project seeks to build capacity for cultural preservation and recovery due to the effects of climate change on cultural heritage in the Pacific. The pilot phase involves Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, and Tonga as well as scoping to establish this museum-to-museum network.
Upholding Pacific-Centered Peace and Security
For decades, the United States has worked with Pacific Island partners to promote peace, stability, and security across the breadth of the region through support to those partners' defense and police services. Calling on the unique capabilities of the U.S. military and federal law enforcement offices, we have enhanced the capacity and capability of Pacific island countries' governments to uphold their domestic laws and counter illegal fishing, narcotics trafficking, and organized crime within their jurisdictions. We work with Pacific island countries' governments and through regional organizations, including the Pacific Islands Chiefs of Police, to deliver appropriate trainings and equipment to confront the security issues that people in the Pacific Islands care most about, including the security implications of climate change.
- Supporting Pacific Resilience through Defense Operational Resilience International Cooperation: The U.S. Department of Defense is committed to supporting the resilience of our Pacific partners. The Defense Operational Resilience International Cooperation (DORIC) pilot program is an enabling program for the U.S. Department of Defense to support defense-related environmental and operational energy engagements with partner national security forces.
To date, the DORIC pilot program has enabled engagement with partners primarily through field trainings and exercises, studies and assessments, classroom education and workshops, and a variety of data tools surveying wide-ranging resilience hazards. For instance, Indo-Pacific Command's annual Indo-Pacific Environmental Security Forum, which most recently took place in Fiji and focused on national resilience and humanitarian assistance through environmental security, will be supported by DORIC in FY2025. Other upcoming activities include:
• U.S. Indo-Pacific Command plans to provide diver training and equipment to the Tuvalu Police Force to respond to underwater unexploded ordnance threats through specialized scuba diver trainings and equipment provisions within the next year.
• U.S. Indo-Pacific Command plans to host a field exercise, training, and workshop for marine oil spills, clean-up, and response with Pacific partners within the next year.
- Strengthening the Rule of Law: The United States intends to provide, working with Congress, $3 million to strengthen the justice sector, support good governance, and promote resilience to corruption across the Pacific Islands. To support the region's formal commitment to anti-corruption, the Teieniwa Vision Pasifika (TVP) would deploy a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance and Training (OPDAT) Resident Legal Advisor to embed with the Pacific Islands Law Officers Network (PILON) Secretariat. With funding from the Department of State's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), this experienced U.S. federal prosecutor intends to work with Pacific island countries to deliver justice sector workshops, legislative reform guidance, and case-based mentoring of justice sector actors across the Pacific Islands. TVP will also utilize DOJ subject matter experts to engage in rapid response, short-term technical assistance activities designed to enhance the specific capabilities and skills of prosecutors, judges, and other justice sector stakeholders in the Pacific Islands.
- Nurturing Future Leaders in the Security Sector: Working with Congress, the United States intends to launch a $3.5 million, State Department INL-funded Pacific Partners' Leadership in Security (PPLS) Fellowship, which would work with the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS) over three years to bring mid- to executive-level criminal justice and civilian security professionals annually from the Pacific Islands for leadership development at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies (APCSS) in Honolulu in support of the PIFS' regional security priorities. Their fellowship would culminate in a Washington, D.C. capstone program of professional immersion and exchange facilitated by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
- National Security Policy Development in the Pacific Islands: Sustaining Progress in an Evolving Security Context: Consistent with Boe Declaration and 2050 Strategy for a Blue Pacific Continentpriorities, a workshop focused on strengthening implementation and improvement of national security policy arrangements, funded by the Department of State's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs and collaboratively developed by the Pacific Islands Forum and Daniel K. Inouye Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies, will be held November 17-20, 2024, in Suva, Fiji.
Economy, Trade and Investment
The United States is committed to working with Pacific island countries' governments, likeminded partners, and the private sector to empower and support Pacific economic resilience by enhancing international investment in the region, encouraging environments conducive to business growth, and create new opportunities for Pacific businesses.
- Delivering on the Economic Assistance Agreement related to the South Pacific Tuna Treaty: The Department of State is working with Congress to provide the first $60 million under the new 10-year, $600 million agreement to promote economic development in the Pacific Islands and support fisheries management, development, and sustainability.
- Continuing to Expand DFC's Investment: The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) remains committed to advancing private sector investment opportunities in the Pacific Islands. Since launching the up to $50 million Microfinance Facility for MSMEs across the Pacific Islands during the US-PIF Summit in 2023, DFC and USAID have identified four target institutions to receive a combination of debt and guarantee products to advance climate resilience and women's economic empowerment across the region. Additionally, DFC, in partnership with USAID and the Australia Infrastructure Finance Facility for the Pacific (AIFFP), hopes to announce a new private sector investment in the fishery sector in the Republic of the Marshall Islands in the coming months.
- Building Pacific Island Trade and Investment Capacities: The Department of State and Department of Commerce, in coordination with the PIF and key U.S. government agencies, plan to provide $450,000 in fundingto hold a trade promotion and capacity building seminar in the region to help Pacific island countries' trade and economic development officials attract high-quality foreign direct investment into their economies and strengthen their commercial and regulatory environments to make their economies more competitive in global markets.
- Advisory services to support the Papua New Guinea Ministry of Petroleum: The Department of State and USAID will work with Congress to provide up to $1.4 million for technical assistance and advisory services to support the government of Papua New Guinea's navigation of the ongoing fuel crisis. With funding from State's Transaction Advisory Fund (TAF), State and USAID will provide financial modeling and valuations of Puma's energy assets; advise on potential financial structures; and provide technical assistance related to the impact of Papua New Guinea's foreign exchange and debt situation on future acquisitions. Additional technical assistance and advisory services focused on attracting high-quality commercial and energy investments as well as helping the Department of Petroleum and Energy convert to a Statutory Authority will deploy in early 2025, supporting Papua New Guinea's long-term energy security and needs.
- Digital Connectivity: To enhance digital connectivity and support secure, sustainable, and resilient telecommunications infrastructure investment in the Pacific Islands, the United States is supporting undersea cable connectivity in the Pacific along with Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, and Japan. The initiative has now grown to $90 million in donor supported funding.
- Aviation Connectivity: Commercial air connectivity is vital to the members of the Pacific Islands Forum, their people, and their economies. To promote better commercial air connectivity and facilitate increased passenger and cargo flights between, among, and beyond the United States and the Pacific region, the United States - led by the Department of State, in consultation with the Departments of Transportation and Commerce - welcomes more members from the PIF to become Open Skies partners through bilateral or existing multilateral air transport agreements. Currently, 8 of 18 PIF members (Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu) have either an outdated or no agreement with the United States. The United States recently finalized negotiations on an Open Skies Agreement with Fiji and is in negotiations with Samoa to finalize another Open Skies Agreement soon. Following the PIF Leaders Meeting, an interagency team is prepared to conduct additional outreach to interested partners to initiate further discussions and possible future negotiations.
Aviation Safety: To advance aviation safety and ensure the sustainability of crucial infrastructure in the Pacific Islands, the Department of Transportation's Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will support the Pacific Aviation Safety Office (PASO)-a member of the Council of Regional Organizations of the Pacific (CROP) and backed by the PIF. The goal is to strengthen PASO to become an Enhanced Regional Safety and Security Oversight Organization, in line with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) recommendations. To achieve this, the FAA, with MITRE, will conduct a Needs and Analysis Action Plan to evaluate PASO's current technical and organizational capabilities, with the study expected to be.
