Top U.S. officials visit Tonga, Papua New Guinea

Transcript

00:00 The 21st century is the economic boom of countries lying in the Pacific Rim to include Asia-Pacific's

00:05 region of East, South, Southeast Asia, New Zealand, Australia and North America.

00:11 But China's move to expand its influence and territory in the Indochina region and beyond

00:16 is seen as a threat to security concerns in the region.

00:19 VOA senior diplomatic correspondent Cindy Sane tells us more in its latest visit by

00:25 U.S. Secretaries of State and Defense Tony Blinken and Lloyd Austin to the Pacific Islands

00:30 of Tonga and Papua New Guinea.

00:36 Secretary of State Antony Blinken held talks with New Zealand's Prime Minister and Foreign

00:41 Minister in Wellington and invited them to engage with AUKUS, the security pact between

00:47 the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.

00:51 On AUKUS, as we continue to develop it, as we continue to work particularly now on the

00:58 second pillar, the door is very much open for New Zealand and other partners to engage

01:05 as they see appropriate going forward.

01:09 New Zealand is a deeply trusted partner.

01:13 Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin have both visited Pacific Island nations this

01:18 week with Austin becoming the first U.S. Defense Secretary to visit Papua New Guinea and Blinken

01:25 the first U.S. Secretary of State to visit Tonga, where he dedicated the opening of a

01:30 new U.S. Embassy in the tiny kingdom.

01:34 One expert told VOA the U.S. is making a big push to cultivate ties there.

01:39 Washington is taking the Pacific Islands more seriously now than it has certainly since

01:44 1945 at the end of the Pacific War.

01:48 Part of taking the region seriously, engaging it more deeply is having U.S. embassies.

01:53 Deepening security ties will be another major issue when Blinken and Austin join their counterparts

01:58 in Australia, another expert told VOA.

02:02 In Australia, there is this bigger, this issue about having greater defense capabilities,

02:10 new defense capabilities in the region and having closer coordination with Australia

02:17 as the base, working together with the U.K. to stay above some of the threats that are

02:24 coming from China.

02:26 While in Tonga, Blinken warned that China's increasing investments can be predatory and

02:32 military activities in the region can be problematic.

02:36 There has been some, from our perspective, increasingly problematic behavior, including

02:41 at the same time the assertion of unlawful maritime claims, something that I raised extensively

02:47 when I was in China.

02:49 China rejects the criticism, saying its cooperation has been welcomed and recognized by governments

02:55 and peoples of Pacific Island countries.

03:01 French President Emmanuel Macron is also engaging in some Pacific Island diplomacy this week,

03:08 visiting Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea.

03:12 Without naming any specific countries, he denounced new imperialism in the Pacific,

03:18 warning of a threat to the sovereignty of smaller states.

03:22 Cindy Sane, VOA News, the State Department.