The US presidential envoy leading negotiations to renew agreements with three Pacific island states on Wednesday said that he would visit them next week hoping to make progress ahead of a trip to the region by US President Joe Biden later this month.
Joseph Yun said that he would be in Micronesia on Monday, and would then visit Palau and the Marshall Islands.
“We want to make progress,” Yun said, referring to talks to renew so-called Compact for Free Association (COFA) agreements with the three states.
Photo: Reuters
Under the agreements, due to expire this year and next, the US retains responsibility for the islands’ defense and gains exclusive access to huge strategic swaths of the Pacific.
The White House on Tuesday said that Biden would become the first sitting US president to visit the Pacific islands state of Papua New Guinea following the G7 summit in Japan, underscoring his administration’s investment in the Pacific region to counter China.
Papua New Guinean Minister of Foreign Affairs Justin Tkachenko said that Biden would sign defense and surveillance agreements with Papua New Guinea during the May 22 visit that renews the strategic importance of the nation.
A US National Security Council official said that they had “nothing to preview at this time.”
Washington has already signed memorandums of understanding on future assistance with the three COFA states, but these still need to be finalized.
Yun last month said that he was very optimistic that they would be and that the US Congress would approve them in a short time, but there was still some hard work ahead.
He said that Washington needed to accelerate diplomatic “catch up” with the Pacific island region in the face of Chinese competition.
The agreements with the three nations would provide them with a total of about US$6.5 billion over 20 years, he said.
In a letter late 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 US nuclear testing there in the 1940s and 1950s, and to provide fair compensation.
Marshall Islanders are still plagued by health and environmental effects of the 67 US nuclear bomb tests from 1946 to 1958.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
RSS