Australia increasingly alone' in countering China's influence in Pacific, aid report shows

Australia increasingly alone' in countering China's influence in Pacific, aid report shows

Briefly

"Australia is increasingly alone in countering Beijing's influence in the Pacific and remains the largest foreign aid donor to the region as the US and other western partners cut funding, a new report shows. The 2025 Lowy Institute Pacific Aid Map, released late on Sunday, tracks official development finance (ODF) from 2008 to 2023. It finds ODF to the Pacific fell by 16% in 2023 to US$3.6bn, marking a second consecutive year of record decline in development support."

"Australia makes up 43% of official development finance in the region, four times more than New Zealand in second. Australia's steady aid spending and rapid expansion in infrastructure lending looks set to cushion the Pacific from the impact of major donor cuts, said lead author Riley Duke. Preliminary data and forecasts have been used for 2024 through to 2028, after the Trump administration gutting foreign aid and Australia stepping up to plug the gaps in the Pacific."

"The dismantling of USAID by Donald Trump has had a ripple effect across the Pacific, leaving people and programmes with an uncertain future. But the report found while the impact of USAID cuts in the region had been overstated which played into China's narrative of US unreliability it had hurt Washington's standing in the region. In the Pacific, the real cost of US aid cuts won't be measured in lost dollars, but in lost trust, said the Lowy map's project lead, Alexandre Dayant."