The US yesterday said it had reached a deal with Micronesia to extend decades-old political and security ties, forestalling Chinese efforts to build influence in the region.
US Department of State officials said three documents were signed in Pohnpei, signaling the extension of a 20-year-old arrangement that gives the Pacific island nation security and budget guarantees.
In return, Washington gains influence and the right to locate military facilities across a swathe of the central Pacific.
Photo: AFP
The signing of the agreements would be a blow to China, which has made a concerted effort to increase its influence in Micronesia, prompting unease among some local politicians.
Then-Micronesian president David Panuelo in March said that China was engaging in bribery, harassment and espionage as it tried to boost influence.
Beijing, he told parliament, had “demonstrated a keen capability to undermine our sovereignty, rejects our values, and uses our elected and senior officials for their own purposes.”
Among the dramatic allegations, Panuelo said that members of his Cabinet had transmitted recordings of bilateral meetings directly to China, and officials were bribed.
“We are bribed to be complicit, and bribed to be silent. That’s a heavy word, but it’s an accurate description regardless,” he said.
US talks on the so-called “compact” with Micronesia have been taking place for years, alongside similar agreements with neighboring Palau and the Marshall Islands. All three expire by the end of the year.
Deals have now been reached with Micronesia and Palau, but talks with the Marshall Islands have been beset by disagreements about the legacy of testing nuclear weapons on the Pacific archipelago more than 70 years ago.
The US detonated 67 nuclear bombs in the Marshall Islands between 1946 and 1958, and the health and environmental effects are still felt today.
Marshall Islands negotiators first want the US to pay more of the compensation awarded by the international Nuclear Claims Tribunal, totaling just more than US$3 billion, of which about US$270 million has been paid so far.
US Department of State Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Affairs Office Director Taylor Ruggles yesterday said that talks with the Marshall Islands were “advancing.”
“Clearly the renewal of the compacts is important for the administration,” said Ruggles, adding that the agreements still have to be “funded and approved” by the US Congress.
He described Micronesia, Palau and the Marshall Islands as “some of our closest partners in the Pacific.”
The US has major ballistic missile, space surveillance, radar and air force facilities in the region.
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
DEFENSE UPHEAVAL: Trump was also to remove the first woman to lead a military service, as well as the judge advocates general for the army, navy and air force US President Donald Trump on Friday fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, and pushed out five other admirals and generals in an unprecedented shake-up of US military leadership. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that he would nominate former lieutenant general Dan “Razin” Caine to succeed Brown, breaking with tradition by pulling someone out of retirement for the first time to become the top military officer. The president would also replace the head of the US Navy, a position held by Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead a military service,
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
CONFIDENT ON DEAL: ‘Ukraine wants a seat at the table, but wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have a say? It’s been a long time since an election, the US president said US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and added that he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks. Trump increased pressure on Zelenskiy to hold elections and chided him for complaining about being frozen out of talks in Saudi Arabia. The US president also suggested that he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of the month as Washington overhauls its stance toward Russia. “I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when asked about the Ukrainian
RSS