US delayed funds putting relations with Pacific nations at risk
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Some in the Pacific view the funding agreement as a test of the US' commitment to the region, which was first completed in the 1980s.
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In this Sept. 23, 2019, file photo, Marshall Islands' President Hilda Heine addresses a summit at the United Nations General Assembly. (AP)
The president of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Hilda Heine, warned that ties with the US are “gradually being destroyed by party politics” over Congress' delays for the approval of crucial funding for the country, saying that doing so opens a door for China to "influence" the region.
Heine is referring to the funding packages agreed on back in 2023 with the Marshall Islands, Palau, and the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) as part of the Compacts of Free Association (Cofa) agreements in which the US provides visa-free residential and employment rights, economic assistance and other support to the three nations, in exchange for military access to large and strategic areas of the Pacific.
In emails to The Guardian, Heine said, “Members of the Congress have to understand that the funds that the US has agreed to provide … did not come because of the generosity of the US government and its citizens, but rather because of hard negotiations between the parties."
“At the moment [the US-Marshall Islands relationship] is gradually being destroyed by party politics in the US Congress,” she added.
Some in the Pacific view Cofa as a test of the US commitment to the region, which was first completed in the 1980s. Under the deal, renewed back in October, the US agreed to supply the Marshall Islands with $2.3 billion over 20 years.
That being said, the delay has impacted funding for health, education, and other services in the Marshall Islands while seeming as though American support for the region is waning.
“Both parties had something to bring to the table, otherwise there would have been no negotiations and no new compact,” Heine said, noting that Cofa nations have often shown support for the US at the United Nations, as they are “the tip of the spear of US defence in the Pacific and are its most reliable ally."
This comes as another item on the list of payments that the deeply divided Congress is failing to either approve or deliver, such as funding for "Israel", Ukraine, border legislation, and the US government’s operations.
'Not looking good for the US'
Earlier last week, a group of 48 bipartisan representatives argued that failure to ratify Cofa would be “the most self-destructive gift the United States could give to [China]," since, in the agreement, the US secures “vital defence rights in strategically critical areas of the Pacific,” in addition to rights to establishing bases, operational control, and the right to deny military access by a third nation to an area of the western Pacific as large as the continental US.
For example, the US Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense test site, located in the Marshall Islands, is described as a “premier … test range for the Department of Defence” and provides “tests of all missile classes and intercept scenarios as well as space operations."
In another instant and another letter, Palau’s President Surangel Whipps Jr. reportedly sent a warning that the delay serves to benefit China and politicians in Palau who are open to Chinese economic incentives to shift diplomatic recognition of Taiwan to Beijing.
“Every day it is not approved plays into the hands of the [Chinese Communist party] and the leaders here,” Whipps penned. The Marshall Islands and Palau are two of the twelve countries that have formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
Heine added that the US funding delay is not a direct threat to the Marshall Islands’ commitment to diplomatic relations with Taiwan, as she called the ties “dynamic” and “one of mutual respect and understanding, rooted in our common belief that democracy is the key to peace and security within and outside our region.”
“The bedrock of our relationship is our shared commitment to democracy and the rule of law... China has neither.”
Heine said the needs of the four atolls in the country, recognized as most affected, “as well as the trauma and impacts from the American nuclear weapons testing program, are far from being addressed."
The $700 million in the Cofa package assigned to the nuclear issue is “a step in the right direction” but “does not absolve the legacy of pain and suffering," she expressed.
A resident of the Marshall Islands and consultant for the people of Bikini, Jack Niedenthal, stated that many people want an “acknowledgment and an apology” from the US since funding delays affect government services and make the US “appear as if they don’t care."
“It is not a good look for the US in this region.”
