Anxious About US Funding Delay, Pacific Island Nations Warn About China
Voice of America
FILE - From left, Marshall Islands Foreign Minister Jack Ading, Micronesia President Wesley Simina, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Palau President Surangel Whipps speak with reporters at the State Department in Washington, Sept. 26, 2023.
Leaders of strategic U.S.-allied Pacific Island nations have become increasingly anxious about the U.S. congressional budget impasse that has delayed approval of vital new funding packages and have warned that China is actively seeking to shift their allegiances, including over Taiwan.
FILE - In this Nov. 9, 2015, photo, Myanmar's pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, right, delivers a speech as close ally Tin Oo waves in Yangon, Myanmar. Tin Oo died June 1, 2024, at the age of 97. FILE - Tin Oo, co-founder of the National League for Democracy party, points out other party members at a ceremony to mark the 25th anniversary of the founding of the NLD, in Yangon, Myanmar, on Sept. 27, 2013.
Polling officials check and seal an electronic voting machine before they allow voters to cast their votes at a polling station during the last round of a six-week-long national election near Dharamshala, India, June 1, 2024. Nuns of the Missionaries of Charity, the order founded by Mother Teresa, stand in queue to cast their votes during the last round of a six-week-long national election, in Kolkata, India, June 1, 2024.
A North Korean military guard post, top, and South Korean post, bottom, are seen from Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, May 31, 2024. A TV screen shows a report of North Korea's multiple rocket launchers during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, May 31, 2024.