Joe Biden, who wants to assert the American presence against China in the Pacific, announced Monday that he officially recognized two Pacific territories as “sovereign and independent states”.
A reception with great fanfare took place on Monday September 25 in Washington for the official recognition by the United States of two Pacific island states: the Cook Islands and the territory of Niue. US President Joe Biden also announced a whole series of investments, university agreements, and underlined the importance of these Pacific islands in History. Behind all this protocol, there is obviously China.
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In another context, we could almost laugh at the ceremonial reserved by the leading world power for these peoples at the end of the world. The Cook Islands archipelago has 17,000 inhabitants and that is ten times less for Niue, nicknamed the rock of Polynesia, which has a territory of 260 km2. Joe Biden rolls out the red carpet for their representatives, officially out of solidarity in the face of the climate emergency. “I want you to know that I heard you, that Americans heard you. We have heard your warnings about rising sea levels that threaten the existence of your nations.”declared the American president.
A deluge of dollars hit the Cook Islands and Niue yesterday. The most spectacular announcement being reserved for the American initiative for the Pacific Islands: 40 billion dollars. The amount is still subject to discussion with Congress, but will be reserved for the “digital connectivity”, that is to say a networking of all the peaceful allies of the United States.
The United States practices “integrated deterrence”
The Americans and the Chinese have been engaged in a fierce war for diplomatic influence in the Indo-Pacific for several years. Last year, Beijing signed security pacts with the Solomon Islands and Samoa, located just 1,500km from the Cook Islands. The two powers crisscross the area. China, officially for economic and commercial reasons. And the United States responds to what it considers to be the “Chinese threat”in the name of “peace, prosperity and human dignity”.
This entire Pacific region is in the process of being militarized. All American initiatives in the area were designed in 2017 by the Obama administration. Joe Biden is monitoring this new strategy, the military component of which responds to a new concept: that of “integrated deterrent”. This concept was presented in Singapore in 2021 by US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. “Integrated deterrence is the use of all military and non-military means in a single toolbox. It is the use of existing capabilities, creating new ones and deploying them through new networks. while weaving a security landscape in partnership with our friends”he detailed.
And that’s how the Nuclear Advisory Group (NCG) was born this summer, in which South Koreans and Americans develop a common military response system in the event of an attack, for example, from North Korea – ally of China – on Seoul. The American strategy in the Indo-Pacific provides for networking of all its partners as far as Niue and the Cook Islands. The 40 billion investments intended for digital connectivity therefore take on their full meaning.