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Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands Illustrate Striking Divide in South Pacific Country Allegiances

Leaders from Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands are making it clear where their loyalties lie as China and the West jockey for influence in the strategically important South Pacific. Papua New Guinea signed a defense agreement with the U.S. ...

Three Pacific Islands Leaders to Skip Annual Bloc Summit Amid China-U.S. Rivalry

The leaders of Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands will not attend this week's annual Pacific Islands Forum, hampering the consensus-based group’s efforts to project unity as China and the United States jockey for influence in the region. The three ...

Pro-China Opposition Leader to be Next President of Maldives

Maldives opposition leader Mohamed Muizzu easily won a second-round vote against incumbent Ibrahim Solih to become president-elect of the small Indian Ocean island state. Muizzu, who is widely seen as favorable to increased engagement with China and less so with India, won ...

U.S. Charm Offensive to Pacific Island States Amid China Worries

A summit between the United States and the Pacific Islands Forum that started in Washington on Monday is the newest signal that Washington plans to increase its presence in the region in response to China’s growing influence there. The leaders were ferried ...

Papua New Guinea, Micronesia to Sign Agreement With U.S. as Pacific Island Countries Increasingly Take Sides in Great Power Rivalry

Pacific Island Countries (PIC) are the current focal point in the escalating competition for influence between the United States and China around the world. Both Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Micronesia signed defense agreements with the United States on Monday during ...

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

2026: Africa-China Relations in a World Shaped by North-South Geopolitics

When talking about Africa–China relations, one is always moving along a sliding scale. There are myriad interactions with Chinese entities that concern only individual African countries, segueing into trends affecting the whole continent and sliding further into global dynamics shaping the developing world, of which Africa is the heart.

The Africa-China relationship is its own thing, but Africa’s fate can’t easily be separated from factors affecting the wider Global South, ...

China Isn’t Spending Anywhere Near as Much on Aid to Pacific Island Countries as Many Think

New research reveals that Chinese aid spending in Pacific Island Countries (PIC) is now at the lowest level in 14 years, challenging the widely held perception that Beijing is showering the region with money in a bid to boost its influence. ...