The US has announced plans to install radar systems in Palau, a move that will increase its monitoring ability in the Western Pacific, which has recently been rocked by threats from North Korea.
In a joint statement, the US Department of Defense and the Palauan government said they were working to finalize the location of radar towers on the archipelago nation of 22,000 people.
“The radar systems will provide Palau enhanced maritime law enforcement capability ... while also providing the US with greater air domain awareness for aviation safety and security,” they said in the statement dated Monday.
While Palau is an independent nation, it has no military and the US is responsible for its defense under an agreement with Washington.
Under the deal, the US military has access to the islands, although it currently has no troops stationed there.
Palau is about 1,300km southwest of Guam, the US Pacific territory that Pyongyang threatened to fire missiles at earlier this month, sparking rhetoric of “fire and fury” from US President Donald Trump.
The statement said the US proposed the radar installation on July 18, before the recent crisis with North Korea erupted.
“This project is essential to the well-being of the Republic of Palau’s air and maritime domains, as well as to the ability of the United States to maintain its defense of the Republic of Palau,” the statement said. “The sites provided [for radar towers], which have yet to be finalized, have been chosen with an eye on minimizing environmental impacts.”
The Palauan government and the US embassy in Koror declined to comment further.
The radar system would help Palau monitor a massive 500,000km2 maritime sanctuary it created in 2015. The sanctuary — approximately the size of Spain — is difficult for Palau to police for illegal fishing.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS