The United States will help tackle illicit drug trafficking in the Pacific Islands, a region that has become a node for the drug trade from China to the United States, Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said on Thursday.
Campbell made the announcement in Vanuatu at the formal launch of the U.S. embassy in Port Vila, which opened last month.
Plagued with an opioid crisis that led to tens of thousands of overdose deaths annually, the United States has criticized Chinese firms for their role in the global fentanyl supply chain, while island nations Fiji and Tonga have seen a rise in methamphetamine seizures this year.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Campbell said criminals have begun to use the Pacific Islands as transit points.
“We are concerned some of the networks that have grown in China and South East Asia are beginning to use the Pacific for transshipment both to Latin America and the United States,” he said.
“Many of our partners in the Pacific want to work with us to try to get a handle on that.”
The deputy secretary said an announcement will be made next week on law enforcement regarding drugs in the Pacific.
He also said the United States could help with efforts in areas such as drug interdiction, treatment, and prevention.
Campbell visited Vanuatu a day after his meeting with leaders at the Pacific Islands Forum in Tonga.
Campbell said after meeting with Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele, who was elected in May, that the Solomon Islands, which struck a security pact with China under its previous leader, wants to re-engage with the United States.
Campbell also met China’s Pacific envoy Qian Bo in Tonga on Wednesday and said they discussed finding areas of cooperation in the Pacific, such as a climate change project, which he said regional leaders had welcomed.
He said the United States was working to offer financing for small businesses to revive tourism, hospital infrastructure, and telecoms links in Vanuatu and ensure Pacific Island countries a choice of partners.
China is Vanuatu’s largest external creditor after a decade of infrastructure construction by its companies.
On Wednesday, the Pacific Island Forum backed an Australian-funded $271-million plan to improve police training in the region and create a mobile policing unit.
Illicit Drug Trafficking
Campbell’s announcement came as U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan raised similar issues, including drug trafficking to the United States, over 14 hours of meetings with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing.“More specifically, we’re going to look for further progress on counternarcotics and reducing the flow of illicit synthetic drugs into the United States,” Sullivan told reporters on Thursday.
China has been one of the primary sources of fentanyl and fentanyl-related drugs—the leading cause of overdose deaths in the United States.
In May 2019, Beijing added fentanyl-related substances to its list of control substances, a move applauded by former President Donald Trump, who had repeatedly called on Xi to stem the flow of the drugs. However, Trump said three months later that the Chinese leader had failed to keep his promise.
Beijing also halted talks with Washington on several issues, including counternarcotics, in August 2022 after then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan.
The report also said the regime gave monetary grants and awards to companies openly trafficking illicit fentanyl materials and other synthetic narcotics, that it holds ownership interest in several Chinese companies tied to drug trafficking, and it prevented U.S. law enforcement from investigating manufacturers by tipping them off in advance.
