Baron Waqa says American aid cuts is set to affect the work of the Council of Regional Organisations of the Pacific. Photo: X / ForumSec
The Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) member countries must work together and identify "other alternatives for cooperation" amid the United States' freeze on development assistance around the world.
This was the message from PIF secretary general Baron Waqa during a press briefing this week, where he told reporters that President Donald Trump's decision to halt American aid is set to affect the work of the Council of Regional Organisations of the Pacific (CROP).
Waqa revealed that the heads of CROP agencies are already discussing how they will deal with the impacts of the withdrawal.
"There is aid through multilateral and CROP agencies that has been affected to a certain degree," he said.
He said it was clear that the Joe Biden-era pledges for the region - including US$200 million in new funding promised back in 2023 - were all on hold.
"But we need to keep working together."
In a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, on Tuesday, Trump wrote that he was authorising his administration to "immediately begin producing Energy with BEAUTIFUL, CLEAN COAL", calling environmentalists "Extremist, Lunatics, Radicals, and Thugs..."
Pacific leaders have declared the climate crisis "the single greatest threat facing" the region and called for "immediate and
appropriate action to combat the threat and impacts of climate change".
They have also committed "to ensuring net-zero carbon emissions by 2050".
Waqa said the US's policy on climate change is obvious.
"We are well aware of their policy, and we try and work together to make sure that some of our priorities are discussed and maintained.
"But at the end of the day, it is totally up to the US to [be] working well with the region and individual nations on a bilateral level."
Waqa said that the new US administration has made it clear that it wants to review everything.
"We are trying our utmost best to sit down with the current administration. We would like to have a really good rapport between [the PIF] and the US's new administration," he said.
His deputy Desna Solofa said the US is a valued dialogue partner of the Forum since 1989.
However, she said there was an expectation that PIF partners align with regional priorities.
"The secretariat will continue its work in terms of furthering our discussions to ensure that our collaboration with the United States government...with respect to advancing the regional priorities that have been identified under the 2050 Strategy with the new administration," Solofa said.
Playing it cool
While Washington is asserting its power, small countries may keep a low profile and hope for eventual easing from the US, according to Auckland University of Technology's senior law lecturer Sione Tekiteki.
"There is obviously a lot of frustration that is held privately," Tekiteki, a former PIF director, told RNZ Pacific.
"But I do not think you are going to see too much of that being shared publicly.
"The US has made pledges, for example, to the Pacific resilience facility, and I understand that whilst that was on hold, they have now authorised that to go ahead.
"In the context of everything else that is going on that seems to be a positive indication from the US."
He said "the big factor" was making sure that "if someone is really aggressive, much bigger than the tendency, just stay away."
"Stay away from it, and I think that is what they are doing the Pacific."
US recognises NZ as 'key player'
New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters met with his US counterpart Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington on Wednesday.
When asked by a reporter whether the climate crisis was discussed, he responded: "Only from the point of view on things such as resilience measures which is part of our aid programme."
The opportunity for China to fill the void left in aid funding for the Pacific, along with Trump administration moves to pull out of the Paris climate agreement, would be of particular concern for Pacific nations, he said.
"He is very much aware of the fact that we have a long-standing relationship with China, that we value our relationship with China when it comes to trade.
"But at the end of the day we are talking about not just China but the Blue Continent, the Pacific, in which we are a key player, and he recognises that," Peters said.
