Findings

Congress finds the following: (1) The Pacific Islands— (A) are home to roughly 12,300,000 residents; (B) are spread across an expanse of the Pacific Ocean equivalent to 15 percent of the Earth’s surface, including the three subregions of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia; and (C) face shared challenges in development that have distinct local contexts, including unique environmental challenges and rising sea levels, geographic distances from major markets, and vulnerability to external shocks such as natural disasters in both slow and sudden onset situations. (2) The United States is a Pacific country with longstanding ties and shared values and interests with the Pacific Islands, including through the Compacts of Free Association with the Freely Associated States, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic of Palau. (3) The United States has vital national security interests in the Pacific Islands, including— (A) protecting regional peace and security that fully respects the sovereignty of all nations; (B) advancing economic prosperity free from coercion and unfair practices through trade and sustainable development; and (C) supporting democracy, good governance, the rule of law, and human rights and fundamental freedoms. (4) Successive United States administrations have recognized the importance of the Pacific region, including the Pacific Islands, in high-level strategic documents, including the following: (A) The 2015 National Security Strategy, which first declared the rebalance to Asia and the Pacific, affirmed the United States as a Pacific nation, and paved the way for subsequent United States engagement with the Pacific Islands, including several new policies focused on conservation and environmental resilience announced in September 2016. (B) The 2017 National Security Strategy, which includes a commitment to shore up fragile partner states in the Pacific Islands region to reduce their vulnerability to economic fluctuations and natural disasters. (C) The 2019 Indo-Pacific Strategy Report, which identified the Pacific Islands as critical to U.S. strategy because of our shared values, interests, and commitments and committed the United States to building capacity and resilience to address maritime security; Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated fishing; drug trafficking; and resilience to address climate change and disaster response. (D) The 2022 Indo-Pacific Strategy Report, which recognized the need to engage further with the Pacific Islands on shared security goals. (E) The 2022 Strategy for Pacific Island Partnership, which outlined goals and methods for deepening the United States partnerships with Pacific Island nations. (F) The 2022 National Security Strategy, which identified the Pacific Islands as an area of particular focus for expansion of regional diplomatic, development, and economic engagement in the broader Indo-Pacific. (5) The United States has deepened its diplomatic engagement with the Pacific Islands through several recent initiatives, including— (A) the Pacific Pledge, which provided an additional $100,000,000 in 2019 and $200,000,000 in 2020, in addition to the foreign assistance that the United States provided annually to the region, to support shared priorities in economic and human development, environmental resilience, and more; (B) the Small and Less Populous Island Economies (SALPIE) Initiative launched in March 2021 to strengthen United States collaboration with island countries and territories, including in the Pacific Islands, on COVID–19 economic challenges, long-term economic development, climate change, and other shared interests; (C) the declaration on U.S.-Pacific Partnership of 2022 in which the United States and the Pacific Islands resolved to strengthen their partnership, bolstering Pacific regionalism; (D) the Partners in the Blue Pacific Initiative, a new initiative, to increase diplomatic engagement and coordination in the region; (E) the establishment of a U.S.-Pacific Islands Summit held in Washington, DC in 2022 and 2023; and (F) the increase in the total amount of United States foreign assistance provided to the Pacific Islands, from $302,500,000 in fiscal year 2022 to $466,100,000 in fiscal year 2023. (6) The Boe Declaration on Regional Security, adopted in 2018 by leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum, the central multilateral organization of the Pacific Islands and partners, affirmed that climate change remains the single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security, and well-being of the peoples of the Pacific and asserted the sovereign right of every Member to conduct its national affairs free of external interference and coercion. (7) The Asian Development Bank has estimated that the Pacific Islands region requires upwards of $2,800,000,000 a year in investment through 2030, in addition to $300,000,000 a year for climate mitigation and adaptation over the same period. (8) Since 1966, thousands of Peace Corps volunteers have proudly served in the Pacific Islands, building strong people-to-people relationships and partnerships demonstrating the United States commitment to peace and sustainable development in the region, including supporting education, health, and economic development initiatives. Since having to suspend operations during the COVID–19 pandemic, the Peace Corps has reopened its posts in Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, and Vanuatu and has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Palau regarding its intent to reopen that post by the end of 2025. Peace Corps volunteers continue to be in high demand in the Pacific Islands and have been requested across the region.