© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A view of the sea in Koror, Palau, August 5, 2018. Photo taken August 5, 2018. REUTERS/Farah Master
By David Brunstrom
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States will sign two new strategic agreements with the Pacific island nations of Palau and Micronesia early next week and hopes to do so with the Marshall Islands in the coming weeks, the presidential envoy negotiating the deals said.
Joseph Yun told Reuters that the Palau Agreement will be formally signed in the presence of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr. in Papua New Guinea on Monday, while the Micronesia Agreement will be signed on Tuesday in Micronesia.
Yun initialed the agreements, part of a US effort to build support among Pacific island nations to counter competition from China, during visits to Micronesia and Palau last week. As expected, he was unable to seal the deal with the Marshall Islands.
“We made progress during my three-day visit to the Marshall Islands and we hope to sign an agreement with the Marshall Islands in the coming weeks,” he said.
Washington first reached what are known as Free Association Agreements (COFAs) with the three island nations in the 1980s, under which it retains responsibility for their defense and provides economic assistance while in exchange gaining exclusive access to huge strategic swathes of the Pacific.
Its renewal has become a key part of the US effort to resist China’s attempt to expand its influence in the Pacific. Chinese diplomats were flirting with the region and Chinese construction and mining companies expanded their business in several Pacific island nations.
US President Joe Biden was due to attend the signing ceremony in Port Moresby, but on Tuesday canceled what was supposed to be a brief stopover there due to the US debt ceiling crisis.
Blinken will replace him and also sign bilateral defense and maritime security agreements with Papua New Guinea and meet leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum. Biden’s national security adviser said Wednesday that the president will arrange another summit for Pacific Island leaders this year after the disappointment caused by its cancellation.
Yoon said Micronesia would prefer to formalize its agreement on home soil. He said earlier that both Palau and Micronesia will sign close cooperation agreements with Papua New Guinea.
COFA in the Marshall Islands is set to expire this year. Yoon gave no reason to delay renewing that, but parliamentary elections are expected to be held there in November.
Yoon called the deals “strategically important”.
“We made two out of three,” he said. “The agreements are very important to the United States. They define the relationship between us and the northern half of the Pacific.”
Yoon said last month that the “preliminary” deals would provide the three GCC countries with a total of $6.5 billion over 20 years.
Last year, more than 100 arms control, environmental and other groups urged the Biden administration to formally apologize to the Marshall Islands for the impact of massive US nuclear testing there and offer fair compensation.
The people of the Marshall Islands continue to suffer the health and environmental impacts of the 67 US nuclear bomb tests between 1946 and 1958, which included Castle Bravo on Bikini Atoll in 1954 – the largest US bomb ever detonated.