America is lavishing attention on Pacific island states
Anthony Blinken is the most significant American official to visit Papua New Guinea since General Douglas MacArthur
THERE ARE two ways of looking at the security pact that Antony Blinken, America’s secretary of state, signed with the prime minister of Papua New Guinea (PNG), James Marape, on May 22nd. The obvious one is as further evidence of the great-power contest between America and China that is playing out in ever-expanding ripples across the Pacific Ocean. In that contest, America had, by its own reckoning, previously neglected the role of Pacific island states, of which PNG, a diverse land with 10m people, is by far the biggest.
This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Islands in the storm”
From the May 27th 2023 edition
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