Nuku’alofa | The United States put on ice its own security initiative for the Pacific at Australian ambassador Kevin Rudd’s behest, a senior US diplomat suggested amid lingering sensitivities over jostling between America and China as providers of regional peace and stability.

US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell – the Biden administration’s top Indo-Pacific expert – said America had “given [Australia] the lane” to implement a new Pacific-wide policing pact. He made the comment during a conversation with Anthony Albanese on the sidelines of the Pacific Islands Forum leaders’ meeting in Tonga.