The tiny island nation of Palau is playing a bigger role in America’s Pacific strategy. With a population of just over 18,000 people across its 340 islands, the Republic of Palau will soon be home to a new U.S. military radar system, and the government has invited the U.S. to potentially build permanent bases.

Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr., who took office in 2021, made frequent visits to and from the U.S. in 2021 as his administration set its foreign policy agenda. Those visits included talks with U.S. military leaders on Oahu and with members of Hawaii’s congressional delegation in Washington, D.C.

The Hawaii delegation and the Congressional Pacific Islands Caucus have pushed for increasing diplomatic and military engagement in the Pacific islands. Today the Pentagon considers the Indo-Pacific its top priority theater of operations.

“We are the leader of our country in the Pacific islands, period,” said U.S. Rep. Ed Case, who has had several meetings with Palauan officials, including Whipps. “We are culturally part of the Pacific, we are socioeconomically part of the Pacific. We’re uniquely suited to lead our country in the Pacific.”

Case said that institutions such as the East-West Center, the Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies in Waikiki and universities around Hawaii play a huge and sometimes overlooked role as diplomatic and cultural centers that foster relationships and shape policy across the Pacific islands.

“We educate many of the leaders of the Pacific islands at some point or another, and they all have an experience in Hawaii; it’s a natural leadership position for us that we are actually leading,” Case said.

China has been making its own moves in the Pacific as it evolves as a major power. In 2021 the island nation of Kiribati, which sits just south of Hawaii, joined the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative after it cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan. In 2018 Palau became embroiled in a series of disputes with China after it refused to cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan.

“China has tried to extort them through economic leverage, first developing a strong Chinese tourism component and then yanking it when they didn’t like what Palau was doing,” Case said. “Palau basically told them, ‘Well, we’re not going to be subject to your extortion on that, and we’ll go it alone.’ But that created problems for Palau, and that’s when friends need friends and so that’s when we have to deliver.”

Palau is part of the Compacts of Free Association, which gives the U.S. military the right to move troops and equipment freely through its airspace and waters in return for American aid programs and allowing Palauan nationals to travel to the U.S. visa-free and access some government services. But Palau’s agreement is set to expire in 2023, and renewal negotiations are ongoing.

The U.S. military frequently trains in Palau and passes through the area. In 2020 then-Palauan President Tommy Remengesau signed an agreement with then-U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper that would allow the U.S. to set up permanent bases in the country. Whipps has continued the push to increase the U.S. military presence in Palau.

U.S. military and diplomatic officials held a conference in Palau on Dec. 14 and 15. While visiting the island, U.S. Joint Region Marianas commander U.S. Rear Adm. Benjamin Nicholson told local reporters that a planned U.S. radar for the island would bring $42.3 million into Palau’s economy.

In early December Palauan officials asked the U.S. Coast Guard for help tracking Da Yang Hao, a Chinese survey vessel the Palauan government said illegally entered its waters in late November. The Compacts of Free Association requires the U.S. to help Palau, which has no military of its own, defend its borders.

A U.S. Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules based out of Barbers Point flew out to Palau and made radio contact with the vessel’s crew, which told the Americans they were waiting out a storm. Before coming to Palau, the ship had been spotted moving through the maritime territories of India, the Philippines and Malaysia.

The Chinese government has been accused of using ostensibly civilian vessels such as survey vessels and fishing trawlers for intelligence gathering and other roles in support of Chinese naval operations. It has used a “maritime militia” of fishing boats to stake out territory in the South China Sea and drive out fishermen from other countries — sometimes violently.

Palau and other Pacific island nations aggressively sought to protect their fisheries, which play a central role in their economies. In 2021 the U.S. Coast Guard warned that illegal fishing had surpassed piracy as the top global security threat on the high seas, noting that it causes environmental and economic devastation and can incite conflict on both land and sea.

During a visit to Taiwan in March, Whipps was accompanied by U.S. Ambassador to Palau John Hennessey-­Niland. It was the first time any U.S. ambassador had visited Taiwan since 1979 when the U.S. government officially recognized Beijing as China’s capital.

When Whipps visited the Pentagon in August, the Chinese state-run Global Times published an article that warned, “As a tourist destination with beautiful sights, Palau will not be able to withstand the turbulence of geopolitics if it is determined to be tied to the ‘anti-China’ and ‘Taiwan independence’ chariots led by the U.S. and the island’s Democratic Progressive Party authorities.”

But it’s not just the U.S. and Taiwan engaging with Palau. In September ships from the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force sailed to Palau, and during an annual deployment to Palau in the fall, Australian troops joined U.S. Marines in removing bombs left over from World War II. On Dec. 5 Australia officially opened an embassy in Palau.

Case said that in the past the U.S., Australia and New Zealand have largely stuck to what they have historically seen as “their” regions of the Pacific. He said that while it makes sense in some ways as a result of specific treaties and economic ties, that approach has been “counterproductive” and is left over from a colonial legacy the Pacific islands are trying to shed.

“It feels uncomfortably like carving up the Pacific. Not only is it not the intent, it’s not good policy,” Case said. “All of us should be involved in all of the Pacific islands. And the Pacific islands themselves want that. They want to partner with each of the countries, not just one country that kind of acts as proxy for everybody else.”

But while Palau’s government has turned to the U.S. and other nations as its relations with China sour, Palauan officials ultimately consider climate change and rising sea levels to be the greatest threat to their island home, and have been vocal in their frustration with industrialized nations.

Even as the U.S. and China compete for influence in the region, some Pacific island nations are at risk of being swallowed by the sea before the end of the century. During the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference in November, Whipps expressed his anger at the collective inability of wealthy nations to reach a consensus on drastically reducing the use of fossil fuels.

“We are drowning, and our only hope is the life ring you are holding,” Whipps said in an address to world leaders. “Our resources are disappearing before our eyes, and our future is being robbed from us. Frankly speaking, there is no dignity to a slow and painful death. You might as well bomb our islands instead of making us suffer only to witness our slow and fateful demise.”