Indo-Pacific allies conduct Exercise Cartwheel military drills in Fiji
Radio Free Asia
Military forces from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States enhanced interoperability and readiness during Exercise Cartwheel 2022, which concluded in late September 2022 in the Pacific Island nation.
The 11-day exercise — named after Operation Cartwheel, a major military operation for the Allies in the Pacific during World War II — aimed at building “expeditionary readiness and interoperability,” according to a news release from the U.S. Embassy in Suva. Around 270 troops from the five nations took part in drills conducted in jungle and urban environments. (Pictured: Fijian and U.S. Soldiers prepare for urban operations drills during Exercise Cartwheel in Fiji in September 2022.)
Brig. Hugh McAslan, commander of the New Zealand Defence Force Land Component, said the exercise was a platform for participating forces to work together, building readiness for military action and other crises.
“We have an obligation to work alongside these folks,” he told reporters. “We are part of the Pacific.”
The exercise was held amid rising concern over the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) encroachment in the Pacific region, including its recent controversial pact with the Solomon Islands that would allow Chinese warships to stop in the South Pacific nation for replenishment, as well as pave the way for the PRC to send security and military personnel to the islands to quell unrest.
Indo-Pacific allies and partners worry the agreement could lead to a Chinese military base being established in the Solomons, which both nations have denied.
Chinese state-controlled media claimed the Exercise Cartwheel drills were “an effort to counter China’s influence in the region.”
In recent years, the PRC has sought closer ties with countries in the South Pacific, wooing them with infrastructure loans and economic assistance, as well as military exchanges.
Beijing has not hidden its ambition to set up military bases in the region. In 2018, media reports about the PRC’s plan to build a base in Vanuatu prompted a stern warning from then-Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
However, the PRC failed to achieve a sweeping trade and security agreement with Pacific Island Countries (PICs) in May 2022.
The U.S. in recent months has ramped up engagement with PICs, with top officials visiting the region and meeting with their Pacific Island counterparts. In mid-September 2022, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman met with senior Pacific officials in Hawaii where they discussed deepening relationships.
In July 2022, at the virtual Pacific Islands Forum leaders’ meeting chaired by Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris announced a series of commitments to strengthen the U.S.-Pacific nations partnership, including establishing new U.S. embassies in Tonga and Kiribati and reopening the U.S. embassy in the Solomon Islands.
The U.S. government also pledged to triple annual funding for the Forum Fisheries Agency to U.S. $60 million for the next 10 years, and the inaugural U.S.-Pacific Island Country Summit was held in Washington, D.C., in late September 2022.
The U.S. State Department is close to renewing strategic partnership agreements, called Compacts of Free Association (COFAs), with the Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau, according to U.S. Special Presidential Envoy Joseph Yun. The COFAs, which were signed originally during the 1980s, allow U.S. Armed Forces to operate in the three Pacific Island states, while denying foreign militaries access to the island countries’ waters, airspace and land.
IMAGE CREDIT: STAFF SGT. TIMOTHY GRAY/U.S. ARMY
