Pacific faces ‘strategic surprise’, says US official, alluding to China

US Indo-Pacific coordinator Kurt Campbell says bases and other agreements could be on the cards

The Pacific may be the part of the world most likely to see strategic surprise", the US Indo-Pacific coordinator Kurt Campbell has said, in comments apparently referring to possible Chinese ambitions to establish Pacific island bases.

Campbell told Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies that the United States has enormous moral, strategic, historical interests" in the Pacific but had not done enough to assist the region, unlike countries such as Australia and New Zealand.