WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Papua New Guinea declared Monday a public holiday ahead of a historic visit by U.S. President Joe Biden and other leaders from the region.
Police tightened security, billboards were put up and people prepared to sing and dance in the streets. Expectations for the first visit by a sitting US President to a Pacific island nation were high.
“I am very honored that he kept his promise to visit our country,” Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape wrote on Facebook.
Those expectations were dashed on Wednesday when Biden canceled the visit to focus on debt limit negotiations at home.
Certainly many of the celebrations will still take place. Biden’s planned three-hour stopover — sandwiched between the Group of Seven wealthy democracies meeting in Japan and a now-cancelled trip to Australia — coincided with a trip by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will continue to meet with Pacific Islander leaders on better opportunities to discuss cooperation. But now that Biden plans to return home right after the G-7 meeting, many in Papua New Guinea are feeling discouraged.
Steven Ranewa, a lawyer in the capital, Port Moresby, said Biden’s planned visit was big news across the Pacific and he plans to watch the motorcades from the street.
“Everyone was excited,” he said. “But now that it’s been cancelled, it’s really demoralizing.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday that Biden still plans to visit Papua New Guinea and that the trip was “not canceled but postponed.”
“We look forward to getting that back on the books,” she told reporters on the way to Japan aboard Air Force One.
It’s unclear if the promise would ease the disappointment.
Konio Anu, who runs a lodge in the capital, said she was sad Biden would not visit as expected and wondered if people would have a day off on Monday. She said she was waiting to see if an international guest who had booked for Monday would cancel.
Some other executives also had their doubts. New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins pondered most of the day before announcing that he would continue his trip to Papua New Guinea.
Anna Powles, a lecturer in international security at New Zealand’s Massey University, said that while Pacific leaders understand that Biden is needed at home, the cancellation shows how US domestic politics can undermine the country’s foreign policy agenda .
“Unfortunately, this points to a pattern of behavior that is leading many in the region to view the US as an unreliable partner,” Powles said.
She said the meeting was designed as a follow-up to a summit with Pacific leaders in Washington last year and is meant to represent a deepening of US-Pacific ties at a time when China is increasingly wielding its influence in the region .
The US recently opened embassies in the Solomon Islands and Tonga and plans to open more embassies in the region to re-establish its presence in the Pacific.
Powles said the hectic schedule leading up to next year’s US election would make it difficult for Biden to reschedule.
With a population of almost 10 million, Papua New Guinea is the largest Pacific island nation in terms of population. It is north of Australia on the east side of the island of New Guinea, the second largest island in the world. The western side of the island belongs to Indonesia. Papua New Guinea is relatively poor, many people live on subsistence level.
During a 2016 speech in Australia when he was still vice president, Biden discussed his ties to the Pacific region and said that two of his uncles fought in Papua New Guinea during World War II. He said one was killed and the other returned home seriously injured.
But China first sent a high-level delegation after Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Papua New Guinea for an APEC summit in 2018.
Ranewa, the lawyer, said China’s increasing influence is evident across the country, whether in providing services or building infrastructure. He said some welcomed China’s help while others did not.
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White House Correspondent Zeke Miller wrote a post from Air Force One.