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WASHINGTON, July 20 (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will journey to Tonga, New Zealand and Australia subsequent week to debate regional safety and cooperation and attend the FIFA Ladies’s World Cup, the State Division stated on Thursday.
Blinken plans to dedicate a brand new U.S. Embassy in Nukuʻalofa, Tonga, a Pacific island the USA considers strategically important amid efforts by China to develop its affect throughout the Pacific.
The US has stepped up engagements with international locations within the Pacific area as geostrategic competitors with China intensifies.
President Joe Biden hosted a primary ever summit in Washington with Pacific island leaders final September and reached an settlement this 12 months with Britain and Australia to supply the latter with nuclear-powered submarines.
Biden has invited Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for a state go to later this 12 months and also will host a second summit with leaders of Pacific island nations in September.
Ultimately 12 months’s summit, the U.S. pledged to assist Pacific island leaders stave off China’s “financial coercion,” and to work tougher with allies and companions to handle islanders’ wants.
Blinken will journey to Wellington, New Zealand on July 27 to satisfy with senior authorities companions and attend the Ladies’s World Cup when the U.S. ladies’s crew performs, the division stated.
His journey will conclude on July 28-29 with a cease in Brisbane, Australia, the place he’ll attend the annual assembly of U.S. and Australian protection and overseas ministers, referred to as AUSMIN.
The Tonga cease will probably be Blinken’s first there as secretary of state and his third to a Pacific island nation, a State Division official instructed a briefing on the journey. It will likely be his twelfth to the Indo-Pacific area as an entire since he grew to become America’s prime diplomat in January 2021, whereas he would be the first U.S. secretary of state to go to New Zealand since 2017.
The official stated non permanent U.S. responsibility officers have been already in Tonga and a primary immediately assigned officer can be there “in just a few quick weeks,” with the intention being to have an envoy resident there.
Reporting by Doina Chiacu, Paul Grant and David Brunnstrom; Enhancing by Will Dunham and Stephen Coates
Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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