Biden aims to wrest influence from China in Pacific islands

WASHINGTON - President Joe Biden is set to host leaders of Pacific island nations with an aim of countering China's ever-growing influence, proffering goodies ranging from an American football experience to shiny new embassies.

The summit of leaders from the 18-member Pacific Islands Forum will take place Monday and Tuesday, one year after the first meeting, which was also in Washington.

According to senior administration officials, Biden will announce a more assertive US stance in the region, funding for infrastructure projects and strengthened maritime cooperation, in particular to fight against illegal fishing.

The forum brings together states and territories scattered across the Pacific Ocean, from Australia to sparsely populated micro-states and archipelagos.

There is "no question that there is some role that the PRC has played in all this," a senior White House official said on condition of anonymity, referring to China by the abbreviation of its formal name.

China's "assertiveness and influence, including in this region, has been a factor that requires us to sustain our strategic focus."

- Absence noted -

China's influence will be felt through the absence of the prime minister of the Solomon Islands, now closely aligned with Beijing.

Manasseh Sogavare, who was in New York this past week to attend the UN General Assembly, did not extend his stay in the United States.

"We're disappointed that he's chosen not to come to this very special summit," another White House official said.

Another goal of the meeting is to renegotiate "Compacts of Free Association" with the Marshall Islands before current terms expire Saturday.

The agreement, which Washington also has with Micronesia and the Palau archipelago -- other territories formerly under American administration -- allows the United States to have a military presence on the islands.

In exchange, Washington provides economic assistance and security guarantees, and inhabitants of the islands can live and work in the United States.

The Marshall Islands is demanding that any new agreement account for the effects of Washington's nuclear testing program there in the 1940s and '50s.

The Biden administration hopes to announce "very substantial progress" in the negotiations, the second White House official said.

- Enticements -

Biden had been due to follow up last year's inaugural summit with a meeting of Pacific leaders this May, in Papua New Guinea. But he cut short an Asia trip and returned stateside to address a debt-ceiling crisis.

For the Washington summit, Biden has prepared a full program, kicking off with an afternoon of American gridiron.

The leaders will travel by train on Sunday to Baltimore, where they will be guests of honor at an NFL game between the port city's Ravens and the Indianapolis Colts.

Monday's agenda features meetings and a lunch with Biden. On Tuesday, the leaders will meet with top officials on climate and the economy, and spend time with US lawmakers.

According to the administration officials, the United States will announce the establishment of diplomatic ties with the Cook Islands and Niue, a tiny territory with fewer than 2,000 inhabitants.

Washington has opened embassies in the Solomon Islands and Tonga, and wants to inaugurate one early next year in Vanuatu.

The Americans will also unveil millions in infrastructure aid, including funds for secure undersea telecommunications cables.

Finally, the White House intends to propose that the Pacific island states join the "Quad," a defense cooperation forum bringing together the US, Australia, India and Japan to cooperate on maritime surveillance, especially tracking down vessels engaged in illegal fishing.

Agence France-Presse

Biden: 'I don't want to contain China'

HANOI, Vietnam -- US President Joe Biden insisted Sunday he does not want to "contain" China, as the two powers face deepening divisions on trade, security and rights.

Biden said he had met Chinese Premier Li Qiang at the G20 summit in New Delhi -- a meeting the White House had not announced -- and discussed "stability".

The president revealed the encounter in Hanoi, where earlier in the day he agreed a deal to deepen ties with Vietnam as Washington looks to bolster its network of allies around Asia and the Pacific in the face of Beijing's rising influence.

Washington and Beijing are at loggerheads on a range of global issues, and Biden accused China of seeking to bend the international order to its will.

"One of the things that is going on now is China is beginning to change some of the rules of the game, in terms of trade and other issues," Biden told a news conference.

Washington has invested heavily in building alliances as part of its Indo-Pacific strategy, including the Quad security dialogue with India, Australia and Japan, and the AUKUS pact with Britain and Australia.

But he insisted the United States is not seeking to box China in, but rather to establish clear ground rules for relations.

"I don't want to contain China. I just want to make sure we have a relationship with China that is on the up and up, squared away, everybody knows what it's all about," he said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping skipped the G20 as Beijing and Delhi tussle over territorial and other issues.

Agence France-Presse

US triples vaccines for Taiwan with 2.5 million-dose shipment

WASHINGTON - The United States will ship 2.5 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to Taiwan on Saturday, a senior administration official told Reuters, more than tripling Washington's previous allocation of shots for the island, which has faced increasing political and military pressure from China.

Washington, competing with Beijing to deepen geopolitical clout through so-called "vaccine diplomacy," initially had promised to donate 750,000 doses to Taiwan but is increasing that number as President Joe Biden's administration advances its pledge to send 80 million US-made shots around the world.

China, which considers Taiwan an integral part of its territory, has repeatedly offered to send coronavirus vaccines to the island, which has been battling a spike in domestic infections. 

Taipei has expressed concern about the safety of Chinese shots.

The 2.5 million donated doses of the Moderna Inc vaccine will leave Memphis, Tennessee, on a flight belonging to Taiwan's China Airlines early on Saturday and arrive in Taipei on Sunday evening, the senior US administration official said, adding that the prompt delivery was due to experts from both sides being able to work out regulatory issues.

"We are not allocating these doses, or delivering these doses, based on political or economic conditions. We are donating these vaccines with the singular objective of saving lives," the official said.

"Our vaccines do not come with strings attached," the official said, adding Taiwan had "faced unfair challenges in its efforts to acquire vaccines on the global marketplace."

A deal for Taiwan to purchase vaccines from Germany's BioNTech SE fell through this year, with Taiwan's government blaming pressure from Beijing.

China has denied the accusation, saying Taiwan is free to obtain the vaccines through Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co Ltd, which has a contract to sell BioNTech's vaccine in China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

"We believe that these attempts by China to block purchases, for political purposes, are reprehensible," the senior Biden administration official said.

The de facto US embassy, the American Institute in Taiwan, later confirmed the delivery.

"The donation reflects our commitment to Taiwan as a trusted friend, and a member of the international family of democracies," it said in a statement.

Taiwan is trying to speed up the arrival of the millions of vaccines it has on order, although infections remain comparatively low despite a rise in domestic cases. Only around 6% of Taiwan's 23.5 million people have received at least one shot of a vaccine regimen.

The US shipment comes at a time when Washington has been working with Taipei to create secure supply chains for strategic items such as computer chips, of which Taiwan is a key producer, that are vital for US automobile manufacturers and other industries.

It also comes after Taiwan announced on Friday that it will allow Terry Gou, the billionaire founder of Taiwan's Foxconn and semiconductor giant TSMC, to negotiate on its behalf for COVID-19 vaccines.

Taiwan Presidential Office spokesman Xavier Chang said Washington's assistance with vaccines confirmed the "rock-solid friendship between Taiwan and the United States."

Jonathan Fritz, a senior State Department official, said on Thursday that China had been "very aggressively using vaccine donations as a lever to induce more of Taiwan's diplomatic partners to switch recognition."

Beijing has steadily whittled down the number of Taiwan's diplomatic allies, which now stands at just 15 countries.

The United States, which like most countries has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, has watched with alarm the stepped up tensions with Beijing, and Biden's administration has vowed to boost ties with the island, which it is required under US law to supply with the means of defense.

Earlier this week Taiwan reported the largest incursion yet by China's air force, including fighters and nuclear-capable bombers, into its air defense identification zone. 

(Reporting by Michael Martina, David Brunnstrom and Andrea Shalal in Washington; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Taipei; Editing by Mary Milliken, Daniel Wallis and Steve Orlofsky)

-reuters

Seoul officials on alert over heightened risk of US-Iran conflict

SEOUL — Seoul officials said Sunday they were cautiously watching escalating tensions between the US and Iran and staying vigilant about the possible repercussions here.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has launched a task force to evaluate the current situation in the Middle East and to discuss measures to protect Koreans living in the area, the officials said.


On Friday, the US confirmed that President Donald Trump had ordered the airstrike that killed Qassem Soleimani — the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force and the second-most powerful man in Iran — which took place at Baghdad International Airport in Iraq. The attack has raised tensions between Washington and Tehran to new heights.

Presided over by Vice Foreign Minister Cho Se-young, the inaugural meeting of the task force was held Sunday morning.

Results of the meeting were reported to Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, who directed the team to enhance the security of Korean citizens and businesses in the Middle East.

The ministry added that in coordination with the diplomatic offices in the region, it will maintain an emergency response system around the clock.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net