Vanuatu President Nikenike Vurobaravu at the UN, September 2022. BRYAN R. SMITH
The United States announced on Friday that it plans to open an embassy in Vanuatu, a small island state in the South Pacific, in order to strengthen its presence in this region where Beijing is trying to extend its influence. An embassy in the capital Port-Vila “would allow the United States to deepen their relationsin the archipelago and to accelerate its development aid, including on the climate issue, according to a statement from the US State Department, which does not specify an opening date.
The Biden administration, with bipartisan support in Congress, expanded the role of the United States in an area that had received little attention until then, following the surprise announcement last year of a deal security between the Solomon Islands and China. Despite the denials of the Solomon Islands, Western countries, first and foremost the United States and Australia, fear that this pact will allow Beijing to strengthen its presence in the Pacific.
The United States reopened its embassy in the Solomon Islands in February, 30 years after it was closed. Vice President Kamala Harris also announced at a summit last year that Washington would open new embassies in Kiribati and Tonga.
With a population of just over 300,000 people, Vanuatu is ranked among the countries most at risk from natural disasters such as earthquakes, storms, floods and tsunamis, according to the annual Global Risk Report.
And after a battleepicof this small state on the front line of devastation linked to global warming, the UN General Assembly on Wednesday adopted a resolution calling on international justice to clarify the “obligations» States in the fight against climate change.