WASHINGTON: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday headed to the remote
Cook Islands on a rare trip to show renewed US interest in the South Pacific,
where China has demonstrated its growing clout.
Clinton was to devote three days
to the islands - whose population of 11,000 is about the same size as the US
Foreign Service - as she becomes the first top US diplomat to take part in an
annual Pacific island summit.
The stop, at the start of a tour
through Asia, has been full of logistical headaches as her staff struggled to
rustle up enough cars and hotel rooms during one of the biggest events in the
archipelago's history.
Clinton will be joined by Admiral
Sam Locklear, head of US Pacific Command, and will announce a series of new aid
initiatives focused on the environment and other areas, a senior US official
said on condition of anonymity.
The burst of US attention comes
as President Barack Obama's administration puts a focus on the Asia-Pacific,
devoting US military and political capital to shaping the future of a region
where China is rapidly rising.
While often overlooked
strategically, the South Pacific is a gateway into the fast-growing region and
the 16 nations in the Pacific Islands Forum offer an ample source of votes at
the United Nations and other international fora.
The United States has deep ties
with the region due to World War II and its territory of American Samoa but it
only recently resumed assistance after shutting its main aid program in the
South Pacific in 1994.
US partners Australia, Japan and
New Zealand remain major donors to the South Pacific. But China has curried
favor by imposing few conditions on its low-interest loans, which according to
Australia's Lowy Institute have totalled more than $600 million in pledges
since 2005.
Samoa's Prime Minister Tuilaepa
Sa'ilele Malielegaoi earlier this year praised China as a better friend to the
region and said that the United States had neglected the South Pacific because
it does not have wars.
Ernie Bower, director of the
Southeast Asia programme at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies,
said Clinton's trip put teeth in the Obama administration's vowed
"pivot" toward the Asia-Pacific region.
"You can't really be a
Pacific power, you can't be 'pivoting' toward the Asia-Pacific, without showing
up at these events," he said.
Bower said that US efforts in the
South Pacific served as a "down payment" to Australia and New
Zealand, which have historically taken leading roles in the islands and have
assisted the United States in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Clinton will meet Australian
Prime Minister Julia Gillard and New Zealand Prime Minister John Key while in
the Cook Islands, a US official said.
A Washington-based diplomat from
the region said Clinton's visit was considered "very significant" in
the South Pacific as a sign of renewed US engagement.
"The Americans are very
well-liked in the region for legacy reasons from World War II onwards. If you
look at voting records in the United Nations, this is one of the most pro-US
regions in the world," the diplomat said.
"But I think there has been
a growing sense in the past 20 years or so that the United States has been
preoccupied with other parts of the world and a sense that the US commitment to
the region may be waning," he said.
"One question that we always
have is going to be whether there is some substance behind the rhetorical and
ceremonial" aspects of the summit, he said on condition of anonymity.
One of the most pressing issues
in the South Pacific is climate change, with some islands fearing for their
very survival if water levels rise.
The Obama administration has
launched aid projects to help the South Pacific adapt to climate change, but at
UN-led talks island states have pushed the United States and other major
emitters to do more to curb their own emissions.
After the Cook Islands, Clinton
heads to Indonesia, China, Timor Leste, Brunei and then an Asia-Pacific summit
in the Russian port of Vladivostok.
The State Department said Clinton
would press for peaceful resolutions of a myriad disputes between China and its
neighbours. China's state media has criticised Clinton's trip, accusing her of
trying to contain the rising power.
- AFP/de
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