The Latest Breaking News on Pacific islands

Washington (AFP) - President Joe Biden's administration on Wednesday welcomed Pacific Island leaders for a summit with promises of greater aid and diplomatic presence, countering China's rising influence in a region historically linked to Washington.

The United States said at a summit with Pacific island leaders on Wednesday that it had agreed on a partnership for the future with them and held out the prospect of "big dollar" help to a region where it hopes to stem China's expanding influence.

The Solomon Islands has told Pacific nations invited to a White House meeting with President Joe Biden it won't sign the summit declaration, according to a note seen by Reuters, prompting concern over the islands' ties to China.

Some Pacific Island nations are still recovering from floods or facing severe drought conditions, and there is little reprieve in sight as a third La Niña is set to exacerbate extreme weather conditions across the region.

To counter China’s growing influence in the Pacific the US should bolster support for island states, new report states.

China sees the Pacific islands as an area of significant strategic interest and the United States should strengthen its commitment to north Pacific island states, now in talks to renew a defence compact, to maintain a vital military buffer, a report released Tuesday by a U.S. Congress-funded think tank said.

In the shadow of the United Nations' towering headquarters in New York City, law student Solomon Yeo from an island nation in the South Pacific is taking in what he describes as a “surreal moment.”

A delegation from the Arab Republic of Egypt led by Mr. Ayman Kamel, Assistant Foreign Minister for Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands, and H.E. Mr. Moustapha Mahmoud Moustapha Elkouny, Ambassador to Thailand, visited the headquarters of the Thailand Board of Investment on 12 September 2022. They were…

If you are trying to find traces of the United States’ long and layered ties with the Pacific Islands in Washington D.C., you need to look hard. Apart from the names of iconic battles chiselled into the Washington Mall’s second world war memorial, evidence of America’s complex Pacific history stretching…

Honiara (AFP) - A top US diplomat warned Pacific Islands of a new struggle against violent power-hungry regimes Sunday, as she visited the Solomon Islands to mark the 80th anniversary of World War II's Battle of Guadalcanal.

Strengthening ties with the Pacific is a priority for the Biden administration, says a top US diplomat, while warning the region faces a struggle from countries that seek to coerce and pressure the Pacific Islands family.