The United States has announced a series of new security and development initiatives for Tonga following a visit by Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau last week.

The trip, which also included Fiji and Samoa, focused on advancing Washington’s economic and security priorities in the Pacific.

In Nuku’alofa, the Deputy Secretary and Tonga’s Crown Prince signed an arrangement to expand cooperation with the US Coast Guard to combat illegal fishing and other maritime crimes in Tongan waters. The US State Department said it also intends to provide US$540,000 for automatic identification systems to improve maritime safety and surveillance in Tonga.

To address illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing across the region, Washington plans to allocate US$2.5 million to work with the Pacific Community (SPC) to strengthen fisheries compliance capacity.

Economic and infrastructure support also featured prominently. The US Trade and Development Agency announced funding to begin feasibility work on improvements to Tonga’s fuel storage and transport infrastructure, aimed at strengthening energy security.

The two governments further agreed to cooperate on marine scientific research to support the responsible exploration of seabed mineral resources.

On digital connectivity, the United States signalled its intention to contribute US$6 million towards subsea cable branching units linking Tonga to the Pacific Connect network, alongside US$1 million to migrate critical government data to trusted cloud infrastructure.

The visit follows a Pacific investment summit hosted in Honolulu in late February and highlights growing strategic competition and engagement in the region.