Papua New Guinea had declared next Monday a public holiday in anticipation of a historic visit by U.S. President Joe Biden
Police were tightening security, billboards were going up, and people were getting ready to sing and dance in the streets. Expectations were high for what would have been the first visit by a sitting U.S. president to any Pacific Island nation.
To be sure, many of the festivities will still be going ahead. Biden’s planned three-hour stopover – sandwiched between the Group of Seven meeting of wealthy democracies in Japan and a now-scrapped trip to Australia – was timed to coincide with a trip by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will still meet with Pacific Island leaders to discuss ways to better co-operate. But now that Biden plans to return home directly after the G-7 meeting, many in Papua New Guinea are feeling deflated.
Some other leaders had their doubts as well. New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins deliberated most of the day before announcing that he would still go ahead with his trip to Papua New Guinea. She said the meeting had been framed as a sequel to a summit held with Pacific leaders in Washington last year, and was supposed to represent a deepening of the relationship between the U.S. and the Pacific at a time when China is increasingly exerting its influence in the region.
Home to nearly 10 million people, Papua New Guinea is the largest Pacific Island nation by population. It is located just north of Australia on the eastern side of New Guinea island, the world’s second-largest island. The western side of the island is part of Indonesia. Papua New Guinea is relatively poor, with many people leading subsistence lives.
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