US President Joe Biden's administration plans to step up diplomatic engagement with Pacific Island countries, including inviting Pacific leaders to the White House later this year.
A message from the United States' National Security Council Indo-Pacific co-ordinator Kurt Campbell, outlined at a US-New Zealand business summit, comes amid rising concerns over the security implications of China's expanding presence in the region, underlined by a pact Beijing signed with the Solomon Islands last month.
Speaking in a call from Washington DC on Monday, Mr Campbell told attendees at the summit in Auckland that along with hosting island leaders, the US intended to ramp up diplomatic ties with Pacific countries that had not seen ambassadors or engagement for decades.
"For the United States to be effective in the Pacific we must do more, and we must do more on areas that matter and are of significance to the Pacific Islanders," Mr Campbell said.
He said the Biden administration would also work with USAID and the new US International Development Finance Corporation to fund projects in the region, as well as restore the Peace Corps to much of the area.
Mr Campbell said the US would also increase support for multilateral engagement through the Pacific Islands Forum.
The latter's viability has been under threat in the past year as Micronesian countries initiated the process to quit following a disagreement over leadership.
A final decision on whether they would leave has been delayed to later this year.
Mr Campbell said the US was more optimistic about the future of the forum and would put staff in place to support it.
He added that along with more engagement with Pacific countries, the US aimed to work more intensively on regional cooperation with New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Britain, France and others.
Mr Campbell said New Zealand had in the past been more ambivalent in some areas of security, but he did not believe that would continue to be the case.
"There is an understanding that the challenges that are presenting themselves on the global stage are not so distant - they're closer and they have direct implications," he said.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who spoke earlier in the day at the conference, said the level of assertiveness and aggression in the region was growing, without citing the source of tensions.
"I don't consider that we have an exposed flank when it comes to security arrangements for New Zealand," she said.
"We have strong partnerships and relationships and we've seen this growing engagement in our region."
