Exclusive-US negotiator expects to sign new deal with strategic Marshall Islands on Monday
By David Brunnstrom and Michael Martina
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States has finalized a 20-year extension to its agreement on ties with the strategic Marshall Islands and expects to sign the $2.3 billion deal on Monday, chief U.S. negotiator with the Pacific island nation Joseph Yun told Reuters.
The Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) is one of three sprawling but sparsely populated nations that have U.S. ties governed by so-called Compacts of Free Association (COFAs), under which Washington is responsible for their defense and provides economic assistance, while gaining exclusive military access to strategic swathes of ocean.
After decades of relative neglect, the nations have found themselves at the center of a U.S. battle for influence with China in the Northern Pacific and the Biden administration agreed new deals with the two other states, Palau and Micronesia, earlier this year.
It had been haggling for months over details with the RMI, which had called on Washington to better address the legacy of nuclear testing there in the 1940s and 1950s.
Yun told Reuters he planned to sign the COFA deal with RMI Foreign Minister Jack Adding in Honolulu, Hawaii, at 2 p.m. local time (0000 GMT Tuesday). He said he understood Marshallese President David Kabua would also attend.
«This is the last of the three compacts that we have been doing. The other two have been done,» Yun said. «Once we have signed, we will transmit it to the U.S. Congress, where together with the other two, I hope they will be enacted soon.»
Yun, appointed last year by President Joe Biden to negotiate the COFA agreements, said Washington would be providing the Marshall Islands with $2.3 billion dollars over the next 20 years, made up of grant
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