The United States of America (US) has announced plans to reinvigorate its partnership with Pacific Island countries, pledging funding support in a wide range of areas with Fiji directly benefiting from a number of them.
This comes barely a month after the European Union (EU) – another major global economic and political power bloc – held its inaugural EU-Pacific Business Forum in Fiji, after which it announced a new €300million funding to boost sustainable economic development and resilience to climate change in the region as it also plans to strengthen its presence in the region.
“Starting under the first Trump Administration, the United States has worked to reprioritise the Pacific Islands region in US foreign policy and advance US strategic objectives by fostering economic growth, expanding infrastructure and connectivity, and bolstering security cooperation,” a statement from the US State Department said this week following a roundtable meeting in Papua New Guinea on Tuesday between US deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and Pacific Island leaders, among them Fiji’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade Manoa Kamikamica.
“Under this second Trump Administration, the United States has renewed its commitment to a free and open Pacific Islands region.”
Mr Landau is in the PNG capital Port Moresby to celebrate PNG’s 50th anniversary of independence from Australia and 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations with the US.
In its renewed drive in the region, the US is fleshing out new funding support and reinforcing existing ones in areas such as digital connectivity, deep sea mineral exploration, accelerating infrastructure projects, disaster management, regional security where it is “working with key Pacific partners to strengthen our bilateral security networks”, the Pacific’s World Bank Corresponding Banking Relationship Project, health and its Young Pacific Leaders and Peace Corp programs.
“The United States is working with the Pacific Islands to drive economic development and commercial cooperation and looking ahead by safeguarding key economic sectors for the future,” the US State Department noted.
Last month, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) board of directors selected Fiji as eligible to develop a compact.
It is understood the MCC – a US government agency dedicated to promoting just and democratic governance, economic freedom and investing in the populations of partner countries – is planning an investment package in Fiji to the tune of “hundreds of millions of US dollars”.
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Note: This article was first published under the headline: “US firms up Pacific presence” in Page15 of the print version of The Fiji Times dated Saturday September 20, 2025
