The United States is on track to open its new embassy in Tonga this month, part of efforts to step up its diplomatic presence in the Pacific region to counter China.
This is what the top US diplomat for East Asia Daniel Kritenbrink said on Tuesday.
Reuters reported Kritenbrink told a subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the US is also continuing to engage with Vanuatu and Kiribati about opening proposed new embassies in those countries.
The US has re-opened its embassy in Solomon Islands this year after a 30-year absence.
Despite the diplomatic push, the Solomon Islands announced in March it had awarded a multi-million-dollar contract to a Chinese state company to upgrade an international port in Honiara.
The US and regional allies Australia and New Zealand have had concerns that China has ambitions to build a naval base in the region since the Solomon Islands struck a security pact with Beijing last year.
Washington has also been working to renew agreements with the Marshall Islands, Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia under which it retains responsibility for the islands' defense and gains exclusive access to huge swaths of the Pacific.