{"id":60967,"date":"2026-09-02T04:57:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T04:57:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/?p=60967"},"modified":"2026-09-02T04:59:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T04:59:14","slug":"us-australia-commit-580-million-in-support-for-pacific-islands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/?p=60967","title":{"rendered":"US, Australia commit $580 million in support for Pacific Islands"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"> (Reuters)     <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">SYDNEY\/WASHINGTON, Sept 1 &#8211; The United States and Australia on Wednesday \u200bannounced a combined $580 million in funding for the Pacific Islands, \u200cas both nations battle China for influence in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Australia will offer a A$600 million ($430 million) package to combat drug smuggling in the region at a \u200bmeeting of the Pacific Islands Forum in Palau, including funds for \u200benhanced aerial surveillance and more training for police and border \u2060officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;The Pacific is our home and our family. That\u2019s why it\u2019s \u200bin Australia\u2019s interests to work with our Pacific partners to combat organised \u200bcrime,&#8221; Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;For the good of every country in the region, including our own \u2013 we need to work together to \u200bstamp out the illicit drug trade.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a separate announcement, the U.S. State \u200bDepartment said it will provide $150 million in funding to the region, including $60 million to \u200chelp \u2060Pacific Islands countries address the global energy crisis by expanding fuel storage capacity and supporting grid stability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau announced the funding at the forum that has so far been dominated by \u200ba&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/china\/china-warns-consequences-over-taiwans-attendance-pacific-leaders-meeting-2026-09-01\/\">spat over Taiwan&#8217;s participation<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">China, \u200ba major \u2060donor to the Pacific that views Taiwan as its own territory, has objected to the democratically run island&#8217;s \u200bpresence at the annual meeting of the 18-member forum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u200bMembers Australia \u2060and New Zealand said on Tuesday the bloc would decide the guest list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Palau, which is hosting this year&#8217;s meeting, is among three Pacific nations \u2060that have \u200bmaintained diplomatic ties with Taiwan. The meeting, \u200bwhich began on August 30, will run to September 4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">($1 = 1.4002 Australian dollars)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Reuters) SYDNEY\/WASHINGTON, Sept 1 &#8211; The United States and Australia on Wednesday \u200bannounced a combined $580 million in funding for the Pacific Islands, \u200cas both nations battle China for influence in the region. Australia will offer a A$600 million ($430 million) package to combat drug smuggling in the region at a \u200bmeeting of the Pacific Islands Forum in Palau, including funds for \u200benhanced aerial surveillance and more training for police and border \u2060officials. &#8220;The Pacific is our home and our family. That\u2019s why it\u2019s \u200bin Australia\u2019s interests to work with our Pacific partners to combat organised \u200bcrime,&#8221; Australian Prime Minister&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":60970,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60967"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60969,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60967\/revisions\/60969"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/60970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}