On a four-person panel that included senior Biden Administration officials from the White House, State and Defense departments, Congresswoman Uifa’atali Amata reiterated her call for the U.S. to homeport a squadron of Coast Guard cutters in Pago Pago harbor. Given the urgent need to counter China’s growing involvement in the South Pacific, said the congresswoman, “We in American Samoa welcome talk in Washington of home porting a squadron of US Coast Guard cutters in Pago Pago harbor.”
Speaking at the official launch of a new publication and website on US-Pacific Islands relations by the East-West Center, Congresswoman Amata delivered her remarks remotely from Tutuila, where she is currently reviewing the work of the federal team with whom she arrived to help combat the recent COVID outbreak on the island.
“Your focus today on the Pacific Islands and Oceania is so important,” she told the gathering in the U.S. Capitol. “Since World War II, all U.S. policy in the Pacific has flowed from two national defense imperatives: keep the sea lanes to Asia open, and keep bad actors out of the region,” Congresswoman Amata said, going on to detail the historic elements of U.S. policy in the Pacific, leading up to the current need to counter China.
The publication will feature infographics, data, and analysis of economic, diplomatic, and cultural ties at the national, state, and local levels with the Pacific Islands. The program, introduced by East-West Center President Suzanne Puanani Vares-Lum and Interior Deputy Assistant Secretary for Insular and International Affairs Keone Nakoa, was followed by three panels of high-level speakers led off by Members of Congress with Pacific responsibilities: Reps. Ami Bera (CA); Don Young (AK); Steve Chabot (OH); Ed Case (HI) and Rep. Brad Sherman (CA).
In addition to the Congresswoman, the second panel included Erika L. Moritsugu, Deputy Assistant to the President and Asian American and Pacific Islander Senior Liaison for the White House Office of the Chief of Staff; Mark Lambert, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, United States Department of State; and Cara Allison Marshall, Principal Director, East Asia, OSD-Policy/Indo-Pacific Security Affairs, Department of Defense.
Speaking in the third panel were senior Pacific diplomats: Australian Ambassador Arthur Sinodinos, New Zealand Ambassador Rosemary Banks, Marshall Islands Ambassador Gerald Zackios, Fiji U.N. Ambassador Satyendra Prasad, and Palau Ambassador Hersey Kyota, who also is Dean of the Diplomatic Corps.
