Two US Pacific territories are about to upgrade their status from observer to associate member, increasing their status within the region’s political and economic organization, the Pacific Islands Forum.

The meeting of PIF heads of state and government is scheduled to open on Monday in Tonga’s capital Nuku’alofa.

Tonga’s Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni has confirmed that there will be a vote on new associate members. “Guam and American Samoa have applied,” he recently told ABC Pacific. “We will actually submit a document to the heads of state and government for their consideration.”

The Pacific bloc’s foreign ministers reviewed the two US territories’ applications for associate membership status during their meeting on August 9. Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown noted that there was “broad support” for the applications.

On Tuesday, forum leaders will hold talks with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, associate members and forum observers. A senior U.S. State Department official will represent the United States.

The Pacific Islands Forum has 18 member states, with Australia and New Zealand being the bloc’s largest economies. Neither the United States nor China are full members, but both countries are dialogue partners.

Green light from the USA

Until recently, the US Pacific territories of Guam, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands had observer status in the forum.

In June, however, the U.S. government relaxed restrictions and allowed these territories to join the PIF as non-voting associate members, provided they do not take foreign policy positions. This change reversed a long-standing policy that had previously prohibited them from participating in international organizations.

Although the French territories of French Polynesia and New Caledonia have now become full PIF members, analysts currently do not expect the US Pacific territories to be granted full membership any time soon.

“It would be a bit like Nebraska voting at the United Nations,” Cleo Paskal, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told VOA.

“The question of the extent to which U.S. territories such as Guam and American Samoa can participate as full members of multilateral organizations is complex,” she said. “On the one hand, the people of these islands understandably want to be represented in a forum that claims to speak for the region. On the other hand, they cannot legally advocate for U.S. foreign policy positions.”

US PIF Summit

A U.S. State Department spokesman told VOA that broader and deeper engagement with the Pacific Islands is a central priority of U.S. foreign policy.

The spokesman referred to the US-hosted summits with the heads of state and government of the Pacific Islands in September 2022 and 2023 in Washington.

However, neither the White House nor the State Department would confirm whether a third summit of the US-Pacific Island Forum will take place this year.

According to Kathryn Paik, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, U.S. policymakers have realized in recent years that U.S. presence and influence in the Pacific cannot be taken for granted, especially given China’s increased interest and engagement in the region.

Paik wrote in a recent CSIS publication that Washington’s realization has led to a series of high-level visits, the opening of several new embassies, the return of the Peace Corps to the region and numerous financial initiatives in the fisheries, health, law enforcement and economic sectors.