Kevin Rudd urges US Congress to extend flagship Pacific agreements

The US has failed to renew its flagship Pacific agreements that guarantee crucial military access, prompting a stern intervention from Australia’s ambassador Kevin Rudd.

Exclusive: Australia’s ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd has warned of “severe consequences” if America fails to renew its flagship agreements in the Pacific that guarantee unilateral defence access and lock out China.

And the Biden administration’s former top Pacific official said America’s influence in the region was already being undermined by its inability to extend the Compacts of Free Association with Palau, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands.

Under the agreements, which have been in place for decades, the US provides crucial economic assistance to the island nations in exchange for exclusive military access to an area of the Pacific broader than the continental United States.

Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Picture: Supplied

But despite bipartisan support, the gridlocked US Congress has failed to progress a 20-year extension totalling $US7 billion ($A10.7 billion), even though two of the three deals have already expired.

In a letter to congressional leaders, Dr Rudd and his New Zealand counterpart Bede Corry urged them to take action, saying the agreements were “vital to safeguarding our mutual interests in the Pacific”.

They said failure to do so would harm America’s “reputation in the region” and cause “heightened geopolitical and economic vulnerability” for the three nations, placing them under “significant pressure to look for sources of funding that they believe are more reliable”.

US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell warned in December that if the deals were not extended, Chinese diplomats would be on the plane “literally the next day” to fill the breach.

Australia’s ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Picture: Twitter

Kathryn Paik, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, predicted they would be armed with “bags of cash, promises of friendship, and designs for building ports and airfields”.

Ms Paik, who served as the Biden administration’s National Security Council Pacific and Southeast Asia director until last year, said that “US waffling on COFA is already having a negative effect on perceptions of our dependability abroad”.

“Meanwhile, Chinese efforts to gain ground throughout the Pacific only continue, such as the recent report that Kiribati has brought in Chinese police to assist on the ground,” she said.

“The US is trying to make the case that Pacific needs can better be met by relying on traditional partners, but our actions on COFA contradict our words.”

Late last month, more than 40 members of Congress signed a bipartisan letter urging Speaker Mike Johnson to include the agreements “in the next available legislative vehicle”, with Republican Steve Womack saying there was “no time to waste”.

Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said the Biden administration was “very concerned” by the delay that could leave the island nations “vulnerable to influence and coercion”.

Originally published as Kevin Rudd urges US Congress to extend flagship Pacific agreements