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The announcement comes as China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi
begins a sweeping tour of Pacific Island nations – including
Fiji – a region that is becoming an increasingly tense front in
competition for influence between Beijing and Washington.
Wang arrived in the region this week seeking a 10-country deal
with island nations there on security and trade that has
unnerved the United States and its Pacific allies.
The White House welcomed Fiji as a founding member of IPEF,
which it said now includes countries from Northeast and
Southeast Asia, South Asia, Oceania, and the Pacific Islands.
"Across geography, we are united in our commitment to a free,
open, and prosperous Indo-Pacific region," National Security
Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a statement, underscoring Fiji's
valuable perspective in the fight against climate change.
With Fiji's addition, IPEF now represented the full regional
diversity of the Indo-Pacific, a senior administration official
said.
Biden officially launched IPEF earlier this week during his
first trip as president to Asia, which has craved further U.S.
economic engagement.
Fiji is the 14th country to join IPEF talks, which exclude
China.
Washington has lacked an economic pillar to its Indo-Pacific
engagement since former President Donald Trump quit a
multinational trans-Pacific trade agreement, in part out of
concern over U.S. jobs.
IPEF is unlikely to include binding commitments, and some Asian
countries and trade experts have expressed skepticism of the
plan.
(Reporting by Michael Martina; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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