Biden Boosts Pacific Diplomacy

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at U.S. efforts to counter China’s Pacific diplomacy, the exodus from Nagorno-Karabakh, and Bangladesh’s deadly dengue outbreak.

U.S. President Joe Biden is busy wooing Pacific leaders during a two-day summit that kicked off Monday in Washington as part of a broader U.S. effort to ramp up engagement and counter China’s growing influence in the strategically important region.

But for some invitees, the Biden administration’s latest effort may be too little, too late. The Solomon Islands spurned the key summit, even after the United States reopened its embassy in the country this year—a snub that underscores the uphill battle Washington faces in competing with Beijing’s long-standing engagement in the region. The Solomon Islands has drawn increasingly close to China in recent years, with the two countries inking a high-profile security agreement in 2022.

There is “no question that [China’s] assertiveness and influence, including in this region, has been a factor that requires us to sustain our strategic focus,” a senior administration official said on Friday. “But what we’re really focused on doing is showing our Pacific Island friends that the United States, working with likeminded partners, can provide viable alternatives that will work for Pacific Island nations.”

On Monday, the Biden administration announced that it would formally establish diplomatic ties with the Cook Islands and Niue; it is also expected to unveil new infrastructure projects across the region. U.S. officials said Washington is also hoping to open an embassy in Vanuatu “early next year,” although it’s unclear whether that will help hedge against China’s expanding presence there. Like the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu Prime Minister Sato Kilman skipped Biden’s big summit to attend a no-confidence vote in parliament.

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Monday, Sept. 25: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan meets his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva hosts talks with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.

Monday, Sept. 25, to Tuesday, Sept. 26: U.S. President Joe Biden hosts the U.S.-Pacific Islands Forum Summit.

Tuesday, Sept. 26: South Korea hosts talks with Japan and China.

Thursday, Sept. 28: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken hosts talks with Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar.

Friday, Sept. 29: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz hosts talks with leaders from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

Eswatini holds a general election.

Saturday, Sept. 30: Maldives holds a presidential election runoff.

Exodus from Nagorno-Karabakh. Thousands of ethnic Armenians have left the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh for Armenia, according to Armenian officials, just days after Armenian separatists ceded the territory to Azerbaijani forces following an eruption of violence.

“Civilians in Nagorno-Karabakh are facing a dire humanitarian crisis and grave uncertainty about their future,” said Hugh Williamson, Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia director. “Azerbaijani authorities have said that everyone’s rights will be protected, but that is hard to take at face value after the months of severe hardships and decades of conflict.”

Moscow’s latest port attack. Russia targeted Ukrainian agricultural infrastructure again on Monday, deploying a spate of drones and missiles that hit Ukraine’s Odesa port overnight and killed two people, according to Ukrainian officials. Authorities said the latest attack damaged granaries and the port itself.

The strikes came as Washington’s first shipment of M1 Abrams tanks arrived in Ukraine, Ukrainian officials said. But Washington is still wary of sending long-range weapons to Kyiv, as FP’s Jack Detsch reported last week. “Concerns about triggering Russian escalation still temper the U.S. approach to arms deliveries,” he wrote, “even though Ukraine has taken the fight to Russian-occupied areas, such as Crimea, thanks to long-range weapons, with no major escalation in response.”

Bangladesh’s historic dengue outbreak. Bangladeshi officials are scrambling to respond to the country’s worst-ever dengue outbreak as rising case numbers test the country’s medical infrastructure and drive up the prices of some treatments. Dhaka has already documented more than 900 dengue-related fatalities in 2023, officials announced on Monday—a sharp increase from 281 deaths last year.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is currently supporting Dhaka’s efforts to bolster lab capacity, surveillance, clinical management, risk communication, and vector control, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said earlier this month. “We have trained doctors and deployed experts on the ground,” he said. “We have also provided supplies to test for dengue and support care for patients.”

Singapore Airlines has reportedly refunded a New Zealand couple $1,410 after they were less than pleased with their seat neighbor: a dog with poor manners. The couple had shelled out for premium seats, they told Insider, and were angered when they found out that the passenger sitting next to them had a pup that spent the flight farting, drooling, and snoring. They say they plan to donate the money to a guide dog organization.