U.S. bolsters partnerships with Pacific island nations
Benar News
Renewal of close United States ties with the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), the Marshall Islands and Palau will strengthen regional security, leaders said after U.S. President Joe Biden signed a bill that includes $7.1 billion for the three Pacific allies.
“The FSM and the U.S. reached an agreement with an outcome that I am confident will benefit both our nations and contribute to greater peace and prosperity for our peoples and to greater security and stability for the Indo-Pacific region and the world,” FSM President Wesley Simina said in a video posted online.
Under the agreements known as compacts of free association, the island nations, which together are home to about 200,000 people, grant the U.S. military access to their vast ocean territories and give the U.S. authority to deny other countries access to waters between Hawaii and the Philippines. In addition to providing funding, the agreements permit the three nations’ citizens to live and work in the U.S.
Amid the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) attempts to gain influence in the Pacific, the island nations in 2023 signed new economic assistance agreements with the U.S. that provide $7.1 billion over two decades. U.S. congressional approval and President Biden’s signature finalized those deals.
Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine said the nation’s legislature, known as the Nitijela, still needs to approve the updated compact, which includes $700 million over four years for a national trust fund.
U.S. legislative approval “represents a very big step in our mutual and enduring efforts to strengthen the compacts,” Heine said in a statement. The compact “is crucial to the wellbeing of our citizens and security of our region.”
The Marshall Islands hosts a U.S. ballistic missile testing and space surveillance range on Kwajalein Atoll. In Palau, the U.S. military is building an over-the-horizon radar station to enhance its early-warning capabilities.
Simina and other island leaders had warned that initial uncertainty over the funding had “resulted in undesirable opportunities for economic exploitation by competitive political actors active in the Pacific.”
The PRC has courted Pacific island nations as it seeks to isolate self-governed Taiwan diplomatically and gain allies in international institutions. Beijing claims Taiwan, a democracy and global tech manufacturing center, as its territory and threatens to annex it by force.
