US Vice President Kamala Harris announced this week the United States’ biggest Pacific push since World War 2 by returning Peace Corps to the region.

The move is designed to head off Beijing’s increasingly assertive Pacific agenda, after the Chinese government signed a security deal with Solomon Islands in April and pushed for a regional economic block in May.

In Washington on Tuesday, the Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles used his first post-election trip to the US to warn that both countries must lift their games in the Indo-Pacific to avoid a catastrophic failure of deterrence in the face off growing threats.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has now arrived in Fiji for the Pacific Island Forum Leaders meeting where he will attempt to negotiate with Solomon Islands, sell a climate package and convince Pacific leaders that Australia will remain a valuable security partner in the region.

Today on Please Explain, North Asia correspondent Eric Bagshaw, who is in Fiji covering the forum, joins Nathanael Cooper to unpack everything that’s happened.

US Vice President Kamala Harris announced this week the United States’ biggest Pacific push since World War 2 by returning Peace Corps to the region.
The move is designed to head off Beijing’s increasingly assertive Pacific agenda, after the Chinese government signed a security deal with Solomon Islands in April and pushed for a regional economic block in May.
In Washington on Tuesday, the Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles used his first post-election trip to the US to warn that both countries must lift their games in the Indo-Pacific to avoid a catastrophic failure of deterrence in the face off growing threats.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has now arrived in Fiji for the Pacific Island Forum Leaders meeting where he will attempt to negotiate with Solomon Islands, sell a climate package and convince Pacific leaders that Australia will remain a valuable security partner in the region.
Today on Please Explain, North Asia correspondent Eric Bagshaw, who is in Fiji covering the forum, joins Nathanael Cooper to unpack everything that’s happened.

The Morning Edition (formerly Please Explain) brings you the story behind the story with the best journalists in Australia. Join host Samantha Selinger-Morris from the newsrooms of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, weekdays from 5am.

The Morning Edition (formerly Please Explain) brings you the story behind the story with the best journalists in Australia. Join host Samantha Selinger-Morris from the newsrooms of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, weekdays from 5am.

The Morning Edition

The Morning Edition brings you the story behind the story with the best journalists in Australia. Join host Samantha Selinger-Morris from the newsrooms of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, weekdays from 5am.

The Morning Edition brings you the story behind the story with the best journalists in Australia. Join host Samantha Selinger-Morris from the newsrooms of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, weekdays from 5am.

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