US officials to visit Pacific islands [1]
Saturday, June 25, 2011 - 18:27. Updated on Wednesday, September 11, 2013 - 09:54.
A tour of the Pacific islands by US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Kurt Campbell, will include Tonga on June 27.
The official Pacific Tour by the State Department and Pentagon delegation was outlined on June 24 in a telephone Press Conference from Washington with journalists from across the Pacific.
They will visit the island nations of Kiribati, Samoa, Tonga, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu.
Mr Campbell said they were making the visit because it had been realized in Washington, that despite the good relations between the US and the island nations of the Pacific Region, there had not been many us government official visits. He admitted that because the Pacific is grouped together with East Asia, that East Asia tended to overshadow the Pacific.
With regards to security issues, Mr Campbell was asked, "is there is a looming threat to peace and security in the region?"
The answer was, "there is no threat, excepting of climate change, sea level rise and health problem issues."