Strategic competition between China and the US and its allies is intensifying across the Pacific islands, with both sides pursuing a growing range of security agreements to expand their influence, according to an interactive mapping tool released this week by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington think tank.
The tool details 56 security arrangements among 14 Pacific island countries and the US, Australia, New Zealand, mainland China and Taiwan in a bid to map out linkages in a region that has long seen Beijing and Washington spar for influence, particularly under the administration of former president Joe Biden.
The matrix assigns different weights to treaty-level defence commitments, status of forces agreements, maritime surveillance arrangements, policing cooperation and memorandums of understanding.
The mapping tool classifies them into three categories based on the level and nature of the security ties: “defence treaty ally”, “formal security agreement” without defence guarantees and “non-binding cooperation only”.