Leaders of three Pacific island nations have warned the US that any delay in providing funding would lead to Beijing increasing its stronghold in the region. China is seeking to draw away as many of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies as possible in the region.
Last year, Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), the Marshall Islands (RMI) and Palau renewed their funding programme with the US which seeks to provide economic assistance to the nations in lieu of exclusive military access to large and strategic areas of the Pacific.
But, despite bipartisan support for the agreement known as Compacts of Free Association (COFA), funding is yet to be approved by the Congress.
Legislators across parties have been trying to get it passed. Republican James Risch, of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, along with 24 of his colleagues has sponsored an amendment that would include this funding as part of the wartime $95 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan which was passed by the House of Representatives this week.
The presidents of the three Pacific countries have been repeatedly writing letters to the US.
In the letter, they warned that the delay had “generated uncertainty among our peoples” and “resulted in undesirable opportunities for economic exploitation by competitive political actors in the Pacific,” news agency Reuters reported. “We … cannot overstate the importance to all of our nations of final approval by the US Congress.”
Palau’s president Surangel Whipps was more straightforward in his warning and said that a lot of politicians in his country were looking to accept Chinese help to shift diplomatic recognition of Taiwan to Beijing. In a letter, he wrote that China has already offered to “fill every hotel room” in our tourism based private sector.
Similar letter from Marshall Islands president Hilda Heine, carried similar warnings.
Beijing claims Taiwan as a province of China, and has been trying to diplomatically push Taiwan towards accepting Chinese rule. In recent years, Beijing has drawn away several of Taiwan’s few remaining diplomatic allies, including Nauru and Honduras.
