Biden Pacific Summit: U.S.

Diplomacy Aims to Counter

China
foreignpolicy.com/2023/09/25/biden-pacific-china-summit-diplomacy-solomon-islands

Christina Lu

World Brief
FP’s flagship evening newsletter guiding you through the most
important world stories of the day. Delivered weekdays.

Biden Boosts Pacific Diplomacy

But countering China’s growing regional clout is proving to be an

uphill battle.

By Christina Lu, a reporter at Foreign Policy.

 U.S. President Joe Biden participates in a group photo with Pacific Island
leaders as part of the U.S.-Pacific Islands Forum Summit at the White House
in Washington, D.C.
U.S. President Joe Biden participates in a group photo with Pacific Island
leaders as part of the U.S.-Pacific Islands Forum Summit at the White House
in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 25. Win McNamee/Getty Images

September 25, 2023, 7:00 PM

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at U.S. efforts to
counter China’s Pacific diplomacy, the exodus from Nagorno-
Karabakh, and Bangladesh’s deadly dengue outbreak.

Biden Courts Pacific Leaders

U.S. President Joe Biden is busy wooing Pacific leaders during a two-
day summit that kicked off Monday in Washington as part of a broader
U.S. effort to ramp up engagement and counter China’s growing
influence in the strategically important region.
But for some invitees, the Biden administration’s latest effort may be
too little, too late. The Solomon Islands spurned the key summit, even
after the United States reopened its embassy in the country this year—
a snub that underscores the uphill battle Washington faces in
competing with Beijing’s long-standing engagement in the region. The
Solomon Islands has drawn increasingly close to China in recent years,
with the two countries inking a high-profile security agreement in 2022.

There is “no question that [China’s] assertiveness and influence,

including in this region, has been a factor that requires us to sustain
our strategic focus,” a senior administration official said on Friday. “But
what we’re really focused on doing is showing our Pacific Island friends
that the United States, working with likeminded partners, can provide
viable alternatives that will work for Pacific Island nations.”

On Monday, the Biden administration announced that it would formally

establish diplomatic ties with the Cook Islands and Niue; it is also
expected to unveil new infrastructure projects across the region. U.S.
officials said Washington is also hoping to open an embassy in
Vanuatu “early next year,” although it’s unclear whether that will help
hedge against China’s expanding presence there. Like the Solomon
Islands, Vanuatu Prime Minister Sato Kilman skipped Biden’s big
summit to attend a no-confidence vote in parliament.

Today’s Most Read

The Morality of Ukraine’s War Is Very Murky by Stephen M.

Walt
Why Did Trudeau Dawdle on Chinese Election Meddling? by
Justin Ling
No, the World Is Not Multipolar by Jo Inge Bekkevold
The World This Week

Monday, Sept. 25: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan meets his
Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva hosts talks with

Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.

Monday, Sept. 25, to Tuesday, Sept. 26: U.S. President Joe Biden
hosts the U.S.-Pacific Islands Forum Summit.

Tuesday, Sept. 26: South Korea hosts talks with Japan and China.

Thursday, Sept. 28: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken hosts talks
with Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar.

Friday, Sept. 29: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz hosts talks with
leaders from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and
Uzbekistan.

Eswatini holds a general election.

Saturday, Sept. 30: Maldives holds a presidential election runoff.

What We’re Following

Exodus from Nagorno-Karabakh. Thousands of ethnic Armenians

have left the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh for Armenia,
according to Armenian officials, just days after Armenian separatists
ceded the territory to Azerbaijani forces following an eruption of
violence.

“Civilians in Nagorno-Karabakh are facing a dire humanitarian crisis

and grave uncertainty about their future,” said Hugh Williamson,
Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia director. “Azerbaijani
authorities have said that everyone’s rights will be protected, but that is
hard to take at face value after the months of severe hardships and
decades of conflict.”

Moscow’s latest port attack. Russia targeted Ukrainian agricultural

infrastructure again on Monday, deploying a spate of drones and
missiles that hit Ukraine’s Odesa port overnight and killed two people,
according to Ukrainian officials. Authorities said the latest attack
damaged granaries and the port itself.

The strikes came as Washington’s first shipment of M1 Abrams tanks

arrived in Ukraine, Ukrainian officials said. But Washington is still wary
of sending long-range weapons to Kyiv, as FP’s Jack Detsch reported
last week. “Concerns about triggering Russian escalation still temper
the U.S. approach to arms deliveries,” he wrote, “even though Ukraine
has taken the fight to Russian-occupied areas, such as Crimea, thanks
to long-range weapons, with no major escalation in response.”

Bangladesh’s historic dengue outbreak. Bangladeshi officials are

scrambling to respond to the country’s worst-ever dengue outbreak as
rising case numbers test the country’s medical infrastructure and drive
up the prices of some treatments. Dhaka has already documented
more than 900 dengue-related fatalities in 2023, officials announced on
Monday—a sharp increase from 281 deaths last year.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is currently supporting Dhaka’s

efforts to bolster lab capacity, surveillance, clinical management, risk
communication, and vector control, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus said earlier this month. “We have trained doctors and
deployed experts on the ground,” he said. “We have also provided
supplies to test for dengue and support care for patients.”

Odds and Ends

Singapore Airlines has reportedly refunded a New Zealand couple
$1,410 after they were less than pleased with their seat neighbor: a
dog with poor manners. The couple had shelled out for premium seats,
they told Insider, and were angered when they found out that the
passenger sitting next to them had a pup that spent the flight farting,
drooling, and snoring. They say they plan to donate the money to a
guide dog organization.
Christina Lu is a reporter at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @christinafei

Tags: Foreign & Public Diplomacy, Geopolitics, Pacific Ocean, United

States