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US secures Marshall Islands military deal, keeps China at bay in strategically vital Pacific region
- Renewed agreement grants Pentagon access to archipelago’s land, air and sea in exchange for economic aid totalling US$2.3 billion over 20 years
- Marshall Islands will repurpose US$700 million for ‘extraordinary needs’ of those affected by US nuclear tests carried out from 1946 to 1958
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Khushboo Razdanin New York
The administration of Joe Biden scored a big win late on Monday, keeping China and other nations out of the strategically significant western Pacific region by securing a deal with a long-time Washington partner in Oceania.
After months of haggling, the Marshall Islands agreed to renew a strategic pact granting the US military access to its land, air and sea in exchange for economic help for decades.
Washington “sought the relationship to continue its ability to deny forces of other nations access to an area of the Pacific west of Hawaii as large as Alaska, California and Florida combined”, according to Phillip Muller, chief negotiator for the Marshall Islands, in a statement issued after the new deal was signed in Hawaii.
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The total assistance was four times the amount the Biden administration had “initially insisted would be the maximum”, Muller said. The renewal offers US$2.3 billion for 20 years, but does not allocate additional funds for specific demands.
The archipelago was the last of the three Freely Associated States to renew its deal with the US under the Compacts of Free Association.
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While Palau and Micronesia signed their renewals in May, the Marshall Islands allowed its agreement expire on September 30, demanding “compensation” for 67 US nuclear tests carried out between 1946 and 1958.
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