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MS PAIK: Thank you. One of the concerns the United States and likeminded partners often express is that Chinese efforts in the Pacific are going against many of Pacific Island equities that they may have. And of course, U.S. interest in the Pacific is not just because of global competition, but that’s a factor that the Pacific Islands are very aware of.

I’m curious your thoughts from the UN perspective, what you see on the ground there in terms of Chinese and other efforts to countermand the international rules-based order that benefit the Pacific, and how you work with Pacific Island and other countries to combat that.

AMBASSADOR THOMAS-GREENFIELD: It’s a huge problem that we’ve encountered specifically in New York, but I think it’s a global problem as well, where the Chinese have made a very concerted, forceful effort to kind of rewrite the rules of the road to reflect its own vision of what they see as the future, including putting in – inserting in UN documents issues that go against the core values that we have and the core values that many of these countries have. But what we’ve been clear on – and I made that statement as well when I was in the Cook Islands – is that we’re not trying to force countries to choose between us and China. What we’re doing is giving them a choice to make. Many countries will say we’re forced into these relationships because we don’t have other choices. We’re giving them those other choices, and those other choices mean having the U.S. have their backs, having the U.S. standing with them side by side as they address some of the challenges that China is forcing upon them.

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AMBASSADOR THOMAS-GREENFIELD: Also raised with me was the issue of maritime fishing and the use of their fishing lanes by countries; and particular concerns with China coming in and really taking fishing resources without their permission, and how we can address, for example, helping them to build up their coast guard. So, I also had a member of the Coast Guard from the region on my delegation as well who was able to engage with them on marine protection and how to protect their coasts. These are also things that, again, the UN can bring to them in their discussions.

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AMBASSADOR THOMAS-GREENFIELD: And it also means addressing the impact that China has through its own financing, which has in the past and I think even – I can say certainly even now has put these put these countries into a debt trap. And we have to figure out how to help them get out of that debt trap, but also how to address more just reliable funding and easy-to-access funding. I think with one country I spoke to; they were like, we don’t have the people to fill out all these forms and to answer all the questions that come in from the IFIs. So, we can’t take advantage of some of this development funding because we don’t have the people resources to do it.

So, we can help on that – from that standpoint as well, helping to build the capacity that they have on the ground, to add to that capacity by giving them the people resources to help them access this funding in a more equitable way.

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Source: U.S. Mission to the United Nations

Speaker: Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (UN)

Format: Interview

Link to Original Source