How The Pacific Islands Can Respond To The Trump Administration

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Projects years in the making-such as a Conventional Weapons Destruction program in Papua New Guinea, the Digital Connectivity and Cybersecurity Partnership in Fiji and across the region, and a potable water system in Samoa-have been abruptly canceled, leading to tangible setbacks in the region.

But although these details matter, each of them with their own story, what is and should be most concerning is the erosion of trust and partnership built up over generations between the US and countries that share our values and goals for a peaceful, prosperous and democratic world. This is assuredly the case in the broad Indo-Pacific and the Pacific Islands themselves.

It would be easy to interpret this as an attack on the US-Pacific Islands relationship itself – and our geopolitical challengers, especially the People's Republic of China, are very busy to that effect with this sudden gift that keeps giving.

But it's more accurate to view these first months as its own overreaction to inflamed and well-manipulated American domestic political concerns, however misplaced and misinformed, which will right over time out of mutual adjustment and necessity, security and otherwise.

For context, as a founding Pacific Islands Forum dialogue partner and otherwise, the United States has for decades been committed to advancing Pacific priorities through united and cohesive political leadership.

The specific nature of that commitment has varied under different American administrations, from Hillary Clinton being the first Secretary of State to participate in the Pacific Islands Forum Post-Forum dialogue and President Obama addressing the 2016 Pacific Islands Conference of Leaders, to diplomatic focus on the region growing under the first Trump administration, establishing a Pacific Islands directorship in the National Security Council and inviting the presidents of the Freely Associated States to the White House to advance negotiations on the renewal of the Compacts of Free Association, to President Biden hosting the first US-Pacific Islands Summit, creating the first Pacific Partnership Strategy and appointing the first US Envoy to the Pacific Islands Forum in 2022.

Although its overall direction has been forward, US foreign policy has always fluctuated in response to changing domestic and international political realities. The current administration's initial approach to foreign aid and its relationship with the Pacific Islands, while disheartening, is simply the latest chapter in this broader narrative, one which I believe will prove an aberration.

This readjustment will occur for various reasons. First, the fever in American politics will break and mainstream American sentiments will reassert as geopolitical realities set in. Second, the challenges faced by the Pacific Islands will not go away on their own and will compel a broader coalition to address. Third, the alternative world presented by the PRC will prove unsustainable and unacceptable to most nations and will compel another resent for mutual defense purposes.

As we all weather this cycle, there are three aspects that remain critically important. First, there are many individuals in the administration, Congress and the broader community who continue to advocate for the US-Pacific Islands relationship. Their efforts to maintain the region's importance on the national agenda must be supported.