US Deputy Secretary of State to Meet With Pacific Island Leaders Amid Increasing Chinese Military Pressure

Then-U.S. National Security Council Coordinator for Indo-Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell (R) speaks during a news conference at the South Korean presidential office in Seoul on July 18, 2023. Kim Hong-ji/AFP via Getty Images

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell will travel to the Pacific island of Tonga next week to lead the U.S. delegation to the 53rd Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) leaders meeting and promote U.S.–Pacific partnership goals.

After his Aug. 28 visit to Tonga, Campbell will visit Vanuatu to dedicate the United States’ newest overseas mission, Embassy Port Vila. On Aug. 30, he will visit Auckland, New Zealand, to co-chair the United States–New Zealand Strategic Dialogue and hold talks on technology.

“These engagements in Tonga, Vanuatu, and New Zealand represents [sic] the latest in a series of high-level visits to the region by senior U.S. officials,” the State Department said in an Aug. 23 statement.

The Chinese Communist Party’s increased military presence and aggression in a region so critical to international trade and world order has made maintaining peace there a priority for the United States.

In 2022, the federal government released the first U.S. Pacific Partnership Strategy, and in 2023, it hosted a PIF leaders’ summit at the White House, signaling renewed efforts to engage with Pacific island nations that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is aggressively courting.

Earlier this year, Tonga said it was open to a CCP offer to send police officers to this year’s PIF to aid in security for the event. New Zealand and Australia had already offered security assistance. The Tonga government did not immediately respond to a question about whether it has accepted Beijing’s offer.

The tiny nation owes China a sizable debt. The CCP loaned Tonga about $160 million in 2008 and 2010; the government used the loan money to rebuild after 2006 pro-democracy riots in the central business district. Tonga must repay this debt by 2028, and the CCP has declined to renegotiate a debt repayment plan, representing a huge burden for a nation with a gross domestic product of roughly $470 million.

In contracting the loan, Tonga involved itself in something that experts refer to as China’s “debt-trap diplomacy.” As a key feature in its relations with many countries, the CCP often issues large loans for foreign infrastructure projects with repayment plans dependent on optimistic estimates of the success of the projects.

Vanuatu’s new multimillion-dollar presidential palace is the result of Chinese funding as well. Days after Vanuatu Prime Minister Charlot Salwai attended the opening of the palace this summer, he went to China to visit leader Xi Jinping. After the talks, the nations issued a joint statement in which the CCP welcomed Vanuatu into its Belt and Road Initiative.

Just 10 days later, the United States opened the embassy in Vanuatu that Campbell will dedicate next week.

Campbell has been a key architect of U.S. policy in the Indo-Pacific, having served in multiple administrations. Prior to his confirmation as deputy secretary this year, he was deputy assistant to the president and coordinator for Indo-Pacific affairs on the National Security Council.

In the Obama administration, he served as assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs. In the Clinton administration, he held multiple positions, including deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific affairs.

Campbell is viewed as an intellectual author of then-President Barack Obama’s “pivot to Asia” strategy, aimed at the rebalancing of U.S. diplomatic and military resources to the region.

He has frequently stressed the need to step up engagement with the Pacific region, warning that China, Washington’s main strategic competitor, is waiting in the wings to take advantage if it does not do so.

Outside of government service, Campbell co-founded and was the CEO of the Center for a New American Security think tank and has authored or edited 10 books on foreign policy, among other subjects.

Reuters contributed to this report.