The United States has agreed to help combat illicit drug trafficking in the Pacific Islands – a key node for drug trade between China and the United States.

According to a Thursday announcement by United States, Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell – speaking in Vanuatu at the formal launch of the U.S. embassy in Port Vila, which opened last month, said that criminals have begun to use the Pacific Islands as transit points.

“We are concerned some of the networks that have grown in China and South East Asia are beginning to use the Pacific for transshipment both to Latin America and the United States,” he said. “Many of our partners in the Pacific want to work with us to try to get a handle on that.”