Washington should accept Pacific island priorities for the region, making climate change - not superpower competition - the most urgent security task, the region's leaders said in Hawaii, ahead of a meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden this month.
"The sentiment shared by Pacific island leaders is that they are hopeful that they would be able to work with the Biden administration on our strategy and our plan, rather than have the White House and the United States develop a plan for the region," the governor of the U.S. state of Hawaii, David Ige, said at a news conference after the closed-door meeting.
Competition between China and the United States for influence in the Pacific islands has intensified this year, after China signed a security agreement with the Solomon Islands, prompting warnings of a militarization of the region.Biden will host the first meeting of Pacific island leaders at the White House on Sept. 28-29.
The United States and its allies Australia, Japan, New Zealand and Britain formed a group in June to discuss how to work together in the Pacific islands region, seen as a counter to China's growing influence. Climate change will be a bigger challenge than the Second World War, he said, adding "it is like pulling teeth" for low-lying island states to access support from international climate funds.
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