Joe Biden is set to become the first sitting US president in at least a century to visit Papua New Guinea when he touches down on May 22.
Biden's trip may also put the finishing touches on a US-Papua New Guinea Defence Cooperation Agreement that would allow more joint training and the development of security infrastructure / Photo: Reuters
US President Joe Biden will meet 18 leaders from the South Pacific when he visits Papua New Guinea in May, a top regional diplomat has said, as the US and China vie for influence in the region.
Papua New Guinea Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko said on Saturday that Biden would attend bilateral talks with his hosts and is "also having a meeting with the 18 Pacific Island leaders" from the Pacific Island Forum - a regional bloc of mostly small states that are scattered across the vast swathe of the ocean.
The prime ministers of Australia and New Zealand will be among those attending.
After the end of World War II, the South Pacific was seen as a relative diplomatic backwater, but it is increasingly the arena for powers to compete for commercial, political and military influence.
Biden is set to become the first sitting US president in at least a century to visit Papua New Guinea when he touches down on May 22.
He is also scheduled to attend a G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan and a summit of the Quad -Australia, India, Japan and the United States - in Sydney