Vice President Harris Announces New Strategic Embassies in the United States

In a virtual address to the Pacific Islands Forum in Fiji, Vice President Kamala Harris announced that the United States will open two new embassies in the Pacific region – one in the Polynesian monarchy of Tonga and one in the small Micronesian island of Kiribati.

The increased diplomatic presence in Tonga and Kiribati is part of a broader strategic push by the Biden administration to counterbalance China’s growing influence in the Pacific region. In 2019, Kiribati and the neighboring Solomon Islands transferred their diplomatic allegiance to the People’s Republic of China from autonomous Taiwan (which China claims as its territory).

The Biden administration has since rolled out several initiatives to increase diplomatic and security resources in the Pacific and push back against China’s political and military presence. Earlier this year, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the United States was also on track to reopen its embassy in the Solomon Islands for the first time since 1993.

In his address to the Pacific Islands Forum, Harris acknowledged the need for a closer partnership with the region’s leaders and regular exchange between U.S. and Pacific government officials at all levels. “We recognize that in recent years, the Pacific Islands may not have received the diplomatic attention and support you deserve,” Harris said in a statement . “So today, I’m here to tell you directly: we’re going to change that.”

Aside from the prospect of two new embassies in the region, U.S. diplomatic presence in the Pacific has been rare in recent decades. The U.S. Embassy in Suva, Fiji, has been the diplomatic epicenter for several countries (Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Tonga and Tuvalu) since 1971. Despite the lack of embassies, the desire to strengthen diplomatic relations and economic ties between the United States and the Pacific Rim countries has grown in recent years. The State Department has even maintained a “Virtual Tonga Consulate” on its Suva Embassy website, which strives to connect U.S. citizens and organizations to local business and cultural opportunities in Tonga.

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“Virtual presence posts” such as those in Tonga are a common way for the U.S. government to establish pseudo-diplomatic missions in countries or territories where it does not have physical posts. While these sites can provide useful information to U.S. expatriates and prospective visa applicants, they are largely symbolic in nature. Virtual presence posts do not act as remote visa services or perform the functions of physical embassies or consulates.

There are several reasons why the United States may not have a physical diplomatic post in a certain country, including that it does not share diplomatic relations with a country (e.g., Iran) or does not formally recognize a country’s sovereignty (in the case of Palestine) . Geographic and security concerns are also to be taken into account when establishing a physical diplomatic presence in a specific region.

The lack of an official U.S. embassy or consulate can have a negative impact on potential visa applicants in these countries. Citizens of countries without a U.S. embassy or consulate can generally apply for specific types of nonimmigrant and immigrant visas, but their applications must be processed at the embassies or consulates of neighboring countries.

Having a visa application processed by a third-party embassy usually means that applicants must travel to neighboring countries for visa appointments and interviews. Therefore, applicants must consider travel and accommodation costs when preparing for their visa appointments in the United States. The country where the embassy or consulate is located may even have its own travel restrictions and temporary visa requirements, adding another hurdle to the process. Overall, a physical embassy or consulate not only strengthens the diplomatic relationship between the United States and the country in question, but can also make the visa application process easier for potential immigrants and travelers.