US tries to pass Peace Corps buck to China

Money talks. That little funds have been forthcoming to support the plan of the US Peace Corps to return to the Solomon Islands is the strongest indication that even those holding the purse strings in the United States see little merit in it.

The sum the Peace Corps has received for its work in the Pacific island nation with a population of 700,000 for the fiscal year 2024 is just $500. That the Corps put a footnote in its budget sheet stressing they are still "close to finalizing agreements" with the latter's government does little to hide the fact that it continues to miss deadlines to secure funding from the US Congress to support its work there.

Further, the agency's budget for that nation for the past three years has been zero despite the US having announced the Peace Corps would return to the Solomon Islands in October 2019 after a two-decade absence.