The United States intends to strengthen its presence in the depths of the Pacific island arc. An ambassador with long experience in Beijing will arrive in the Marshall Islands, because Chinese influence in the region is growing stronger
The confrontation between the United States and China to control the Pacific Ocean leads to a series of endless files, subject to the climate of continuous securitization that permeates the entire relationship between the powers mentioned by Professor Evan Feigenbaum. The diplomatic field is also interested in this confrontation, as evidenced by the appointment of a specialist in China as US Ambassador to the Marshall Islands.
candidate Laura Stone, who served three missions at the US Embassy in Beijing, served in the Office of the Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth “where she coordinated efforts to counter malign economic influence from China” and was a former deputy interim secretary for China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mongolia. The fact that it is the White House itself that remembers these experiences, which emphasizes them as a valuable element of the appointment, in and of itself explains the real climate—that is, one that exceeds the photo opportunities allowed by the resumption of the flow of communications between senior Chinese and US officials.
The Biden administration ramped up diplomatic resources for Pacific island nations after China signed a controversial security pact with the Solomon Islands in 2022. Beijing further deepened its relationship with the Honiara Islands by concluding a joint cooperation agreement on Tuesday on “law enforcement and security issues.” Instead, the Marshall Islands is negotiating an extension of a strategic partnership agreement with the United States that expires at the end of 2023 and which commits the United States to financial assistance and visa-free immigration rights in exchange for the right to refuse access. Strangers from the waters, airspace and land of these countries.
Stone’s job would be to allow a reaffirmation of the agreement between Washington and the DUD (known as the Pacts of Free Association, Cofa), which essentially meant preventing even the Marshall Islands from ending up as objects of Chinese ambitions. In May Cofa re-signed with Micronesia and Palau. Regional media contend that the eventual reaffirmation of the partnership with the Marshall Islands has been hampered by disagreement over how to deal with the legacy of massive US nuclear testing.
Last year, more than 100 environmental and arms control activists and groups urged the Biden administration to issue a formal apology to the Marshall Islands and offer fair compensation. “The people of the Marshall Islands continue to suffer the health and environmental effects of the 67 nuclear bomb tests conducted by the United States between 1946 and 1958, including “Castle Bravo” on Bikini Atoll in 1954, the largest US bomb that never exploded,” Global Times Inserting himself into the narrative and relaunching it. Meanwhile, Chinese diplomats courted the region, and Chinese construction and mining companies expanded operations to Pacific island nations.
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