The cuts to USAID have all but dismantled the United States international development agency, but a powerful voice from one of the regional heads of US forces is advocating "most strongly" for its continuation of funding for the Pacific region.

Admiral Samuel Paparo, who was in charge of Indo-Pacific naval waters until last year, has told a congressional hearing in Washington of the strategic importance of retaining the USAID program, which was established by former US president John F Kennedy in 1961 for the influence of the Western Hemisphere against the Soviet Union at the time.

The former commander of the US Pacific Fleet said funding of the Pacific Islands served to firm American influence that is increasingly being contested by China prior to the 2024 US presidential elections.

Asked whether the US was missing opportunities since President Trump's administrative assault on the agency by not utilising the US Coast Guard to full effect in the Pacific Islands, Admiral Paparo told the US House Armed Services Committee to reconsider the States' position of the USAID while its currently under review.

"I'll be advocating most strongly for that aid for all of the countries, and the Coast Guard provides a critical role in the South Pacific," he said.

Admiral Paparo did not mince his words on who and how the vacuum is filled by the rollback in aid.

"The People's Republic of China sees these opportunities - and they seize them," he said.

USAID, the US government's main agency for foreign assistance, has been the prime target of technology billionaire Elon Musk's moves to slash US government spending.

Mr Musk, who is not elected but handpicked into President Trump's inner circle, is holding one of the senior advisor roles for the US President in the new Department of Government Efficiency.

The bulk of USAID staff have been put on administrative leave from February, just weeks since Trump took office, while hundreds more of contractors have been explicitly fired amid the axing of 1600 positions in total while more than 5000 programs have been terminated that has disrupted a variety of humanitarian aid operations affecting up to five million residents in the Pacific.

The head of US forces in Africa, General Michael Langley, also told the Congressional hearings last week that China was also working hard to exploit the dismantling of USAID activity on that continent.

Since President Trump took office for a second time, he has driven an unprecedented level of sweeping governmental change.

One of the first policies that was implemented, and the most drastic of changes, was to the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

The most aid-dependent countries - the Freely Associated States, including Marshall Islands, Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia - happen to be among the most strategically located in the region for the US resistance to possibly Chinese aggression on Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines.

Maintaining aid to the isolated communities in the greater Indo-Pacific region that have been a loyal ally to the US is equally important.

The island countries need protection, suffering from intense poverty and are unusually vulnerable to climate change.

Admiral Paparo also added that a bigger picture from the US foreign cuts would be to aid China's control and to "shatter global economies", telling the US Senate Armed Services Committee that the US ran the risk of a strategic conflict and for an outbreak of a war that could possibly leave "deaths of despair" across the Pacific.

Nicholas Weising, a program associate at the US Center for Maritime Strategy, said that Australia is the ideal candidate to aid the freely associated Pacific states to prevent communist infiltration.

"Australia is best equipped to fill the void left by the US, given its robust relationships with many Pacific countries," he wrote for the Australia Strategist Policy Institute site in April.

"Additionally, most US money dedicated to Pacific aid goes through Australian Non-Government Organisations. This decreases the need to alter existing programs, which increases the chances of a smooth transition.

"The shutdown of USAID has been an enormous hit to US soft power and its ability to counter China in the Pacific. But the worst outcomes can be avoided through the intervention of steadfast allies - especially Australia."