The U.S. hopes an old WWII naval base in Papua New Guinea will give it an edge on China

Dusting off an obscure old naval base and promising to prowl for illegal fishing boats may not exactly seem like front page developments. But the Biden administration’s moves in Papua New Guinea are squarely aimed at checking China’s recent advances in a strategically critical region of the Pacific, where both countries are now trying to eke out an advantage by winning hearts and minds one island nation at a time.

Last year, Beijing announced a formal security agreement with the Solomon Islands, which sits around 1,000 miles to the east of the Lombrum facility, giving China a potential base to project its power into strategically important waterways. Beijing has also been discussing building ports and airfields in Pacific Island countries like Samoa, Vanuatu, and Kiribati.

In any conflict between the U.S. and China, both Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands could serve as key naval bases to control the flow of military and commercial traffic from Australia back into Asia — as they did during World War II. The Biden administration has flooded the wider Pacific region with military and diplomatic assets over the past two years, including opening new embassies in the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Kiribati, and earlier this month, Tonga.

“We’ve seen an opportunistic move by Beijing in the Pacific islands to expand their presence. Of particular concern are China’s gaining access to facilities that might have dual use, or military capabilities,” Charles Edel, a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Semafor. “There’s a real competition now for influence with these islands.”

Beyond signing the new agreements with Papua New Guinea, Biden also plans to meet with the leaders of dozens of other Pacific Island nations while in Port Moresby next week. In September, the president hosted a White House summit for may of the region’s top officials where they signed on to a partnership plan with the U.S.

The Papua New Guinea deals are also just the latest in a slew of new initiatives Biden has recently kicked off with allies to strengthen the U.S.’s military, economic, and technological advantages in the Pacific.

Over the past month, the White House unveiled a new nuclear-defense agreement with South Korea that bolsters the countries’ ability to defend against North Korean and Chinese threats, along with a strengthened Mutual Defense Treaty with the Philippines. The latter includes four new basing agreements on islands strategically located near Taiwan.

The administration has also been working to grow an Asia-focused defense technologies coalition, known as AUKUS. It initially centers on building nuclear submarines with Australia and the U.K. but will advance to include hypersonic weapons, quantum computing technologies, and underwater vehicle production.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby declined on Monday to comment on the expected defense agreement with Papua New Guinea, but stressed the importance of Pacific island countries to stability in the region.

Some liberal politicians abroad, including former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating, have been critical of AUKUS and the rush to project more Western power into the Pacific. They believe it will further militarize the region, decades after the bloody battles of the Second World War that raged there. And they say such initiatives could make a conflict with China inevitable.

Chinese state media has also voiced criticism of the U.S.’s and Australia’s moves in the region, particularly the efforts to revamp the Lombrum naval facility on Manus Island. “It is plain to any eye that Canberra is trying to turn the Pacific region into a springboard for the U.S. military adventurism, which would critically undermine the regional stability and economic development,” Global Times said in October.