Fiji to Join Biden’s Asian Economic Platform as Pacific Competition Intensifies

SYDNEY—President Biden’s financial platform to counter China within the Indo-Pacific area expanded to 14 founding members after the U.S. stated Fiji had agreed to be a part of, a transfer that comes on the eve of a go to by Beijing’s prime diplomat to the Pacific island nation.

The Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, launched on Monday, represents the most recent effort by the U.S. to intensify engagement in a area that has turn out to be an area for strategic competitors between Washington and Beijing in recent times. While the commerce initiative included conventional allies like Australia and Japan, together with massive economies such as India and Indonesia, it initially lacked the involvement of a Pacific island nation in an unlimited space of ocean that’s dwelling to main transport lanes and fisheries.